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LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. 



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LIFE 



OP 



Ai^DREW JACKSON, 



CONDENSED FROM THE ArTHMt's " LIFE OF ANDEEW JAOKBON, 
IN THREE VOLUMES. 



BY JAMES I^ARTON, 

AUTHOR OF THE "LIFE OP AARON BURR," " HTTMOEOUS POETRY OF THE ENGLISH 
LANGUAGE," ETC. 



1^ 



NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY MASON BROTHERS. 

BOSTON: MASON & HAMLIN. PHILADELPHIA: .J. B LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
LONDON: D. APPLETON & CO.. 16 LITTLE (BRITAIN. 
1863. ' , , r 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, 

BY MASON BROTHERS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the 
Southern District of New York. 



2.1-1 <h C 



0. A. ALVORD. 3TEP.l;0TYl'Eli A>rD l'EI>TEB. 



"i- 



■^ 



PREFACE 



This volume is a condensation of the " Life of Andrew Jack- 
son," in three volumes, octavo, which was published by the 
author in 1860. Nearly every thing in the way of document, 
letter, episode, disquisition, note, or appendix, has been omit- 
ted ; but the story of the life has been retained, and the more 
interesting narratives, scenes, and anecdotes, are preserved 
entire. 

There is much in the larger work which the student of recent 
history, the statesman, the politician, the soldier, and the 
citizen who desires to understand the interior working of his 
country's institutions, cannot dispense with. But the present 
volume contains all of Jackson which young readers need 
know, or readers in general will care to know. 

It is proper to state, that a great part of the information 
given in these pages respecting the childhood, the youth, the 
frontier experiences, the White House life, and the last years 
of General Jackson, was derived by the author, in the course of 
an extensive tour in the Southern States, from the general's 
surviving relations, comrades, and political associates. 

The events of the last two years have invested with new 
interest the character of the man to whom we owed the post- 
ponement of civil war for thirty years. Mr. Webster thought 
the issue should have been met then^ the strength of the gov- 
ernment tested then^ not postponed till the mighty spell of the 
Union had lost its potency over a third of the country ; and 



-y^t 



6 PREFA CE. 

Jackson himself .constantly regretted, to his dying hour, that 
he had not dealt to Calhoun the penalty due to one whom 
balked ambition alone made a disturber of his country's pea'6e. 
jSTevertheless, thirty years of peace was a boon for which the 
country is the more warmly grateful from knowing what civil 
war is. 

The reader will find the Jackson of these pages a hero with- 
out fear, but, unhappily, not without reproach. He was a 
faulty man, like the rest of us, and committed, in his life, 
some most grievous sins. As his virtues and his good deeds 
are distinctly set forth and duly extolled, so his errors and 
weaknesses are not concealed. 

New York, December, 1862. 




/ 

OOl^TEI^TS. 



Chapter Pag' 

I. — Birth and Parentage 9 

II. — Childhood and Education 13 

III. — During the Revolutionary War 19 

IV. — He Studies Law , 34 

¥. — Hemotal to Tennessee 45 

VI.— Jackson Practices Law 53 

VII. — Jackson in Congress 62 

VIII. — Judge of the Supreme Court 69 

IX. — Jackson as a Man op Business 75 

X. — Duel with Charles Dickinson - 82 

XI. — General Jackson at Home 95 

XII. — General Jackson in Service 106 

XIII.— Affray with the Bentons : 116 

XIV. — The Massacre at Fort Mims 124 

XV. — Tennessee in the Field 132 

XVI. — Mutiny in the Camp 147 

XVIL — The Finishing Blow 1 65 

) XVIII — Defense of Molile 181 

i XIX. — Jackson Expels the English from Pensacola 191 

XX. — Jackson's First Measures at New Orleans 197 

XXI. — Approach of the British 205 

XXII.— Night Battle op December Twenty-Third 215 

XXIII. — Jackson Fortifies 226 

XXIV. — The British Advance a Second Time 240 

XXV. — The Eighth op January 253 

XXVI. — End of the Campaign 272 

/ XXVIL— Rest and Glory 291 



8 CONTENTS. 

Chapter Pash 

XXVIII.— The Seminole War 295 

XXIX. — A Governor in the Calaboose , . 316 

XXX. — A Candidate for the Presidency *^30 

XXXI. — Elected President 339 

XXXII. — Inauguration. — Mrs. Eaton 348 

XXXIII. — Terror among the Office-Holders 354 

XXXIV. — The Bank of the United States 359 

XXXV. — Congress in Session 363 

XXXVI. — Mr. Van Buben Calls upon Mrs. Eaton 371 

XXXVII. — Dissolution op the Cabinet 384 

XXXVIIL— The Bank Bill Vetoed 391 

XXXIX.— Nullification. 398 

XL. — Removal of the Deposits ■.-. 420 

XLT. — The French Imbroglio 433 

XLII. — Close of the Administration 441 

XLIII. — In Retirement 441 

XLIV. — The Closing Scenes 457 

XLV. — Conclusion 464 



LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. 



CHAPTER I. 

BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. 



In 1V65, Andrew Jackson, the father of the Andrew Jackson 
whose career we are about to relate, emigrated, with his wife and 
two sons, from Carrickfergus, in the north of Ireland, . to South 
Carolina. His sons were named Hugh and Robert ; Andrew was 
not yet born. In his native country he had cultivated a few hired • 
acres, and his wife had been a weaver of linen. Like most of the / 
inhabitants of the North of Ireland, he was of Scottish origin; 
but his ancestors had lived for live generations in the neighborhood 
of Carrickfergus ; lowly, honest people, tillers of the soil and 
weavers ; radical whigs in politics, Presbyterians in religion. He 
was accompanied to America by three of his neighbors, James, 
Robert, *and Joseph Crawford, the first-named of whom was his 
brother-in-law. The peace between France and England, signed 
two years before, which ended the " old French war" — the war 
in which Braddock was defeated and Canada Avon — had restored 
to niankmd their highway, the ocean, and given an impulse to 
emigration from the old world to the new. From the north of 
Ireland large numbers sailed away to the land of promise. Five 
sisters of Mrs. Jackson had gone, or were soon going. Samuel 
Jackson, a brother of Andrew, afterward went, and established 
himself in Philadelphia, where he long lif ed, a respectable citizen. 
Mrs. SuflVen, a daughter of another brother, followed in later 
years, and settled in New York, where she has living descendants. 
Andrew Jackson was a poor man, and his Avife, Elizabeth 
Hutchinson, Avas a poor man's daughter. The tradition is clear 
among the numerous descendants of Mrs. Jackson's sisters, that 
their lot in Ireland was a hard one. The grandchildren of the 



10 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [Il67. 

Hutchinson sisters remember hearing their mothers often say, that 
in Ireland some of these girls were compelled to labor half the 
night, and sometimes all night, in order to produce the requisite 
quantity of linen. Linen-weaving was their employment both 
before and after marriage; the men of the families tilling small 
farms at high rents, and the women toiling at the loom. The 
members of this circle were not all equally poor. There is reason 
to believe that some of them brought to America sums of money 
which were considerable for that day, and sufficient to enable them 
to buy negroes as well as lands in the southern wilderness. But 
all accounts concur in this : that Andrew Jackson was very poor, 
both in Ireland and in America. The Hirtchinson sisters are 
remembered as among the most thrifty, industrious, and capable of 
a race remarkable for those qualities. There is a smack of the 
North-Irish brogue still to be observed in the speech of their 
grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

The party of emigrants from Carrickfergus landed at Charleston, 
and proceeded, without delay, to the Waxhaw settlement, a hun- 
dred and sixty miles to the north- v^'est of Charleston, where many 
of their kindred and countrymen were already establislied. This 
settlement was, or had been the seat of the Waxhaw tribe of Indians. 
It is the region watered by the Catawba river, since pleasantly 
famous for its grapes. A branch of the Catawba, called the Waxhaw 
Creek, a small and not ornamental stream, much choked with logs 
and overgrowth to this day, runs through it, fertilizing a consider- 
able extent of bottom laud. It is a pleasant enough xmdulating 
region, an oasis of fertility in a waste of pine woods ; much " worn" 
now by incessant cotton-raising, but .showing still some fine and 
profitable plantations. The word Waxhaw, be it observed, has no 
geographical or political meaning. The settlement so called was 
[lartly in North Carolina and partly in South Carolina. Many 
of the settlers, probably, scarcely knew in which of the two provinces 
they lived, nor cared to, know. At this" day, the name Waxhaw 
has vanished from the maps and gazetteers, but in the country 
round about the old settlement, the lands along the creek are stil 
called " the Waxhaws." 

Another proof of the poverty of Andrew Jackson is this : the 
Crawfords, who came with him from Ii-eland, bought lands near 
the center of the settlement, on the Waxhaw Creek itself, lands 



X.. 



1767.] BIRTH AND PARENTAGE. ^ 

Which stiU attest the wisdom of their choice- hnt T..T.. 

a ". P,:ilrGrr'"r°' "-Catawba. The pla.3 is «;Lfw 

«ih JTieabant urove Camp Ground " nnri +1iq,.o. ■• i i 

mmculty The best information now attainable confirms the tra 

' n tb?S^ '""■"'' '" *'" '^"^"''■^^^ «°™*'-3'' "-' AnZw Jai; 
T^'l M? ^,"'r'' "'"'"^ '" ^™'^"'=» o'"^ aere of land On 
wTth his f^iu:"'-, ^"'™'-' ^"-- J-'-™ plated hts^f! 
and a bom? Tb ?""-'° ''"^ °'" of the wilderness a farm 

North c1h„ f f '!.' "'"" ■'^ "°"' °''"''<' Union connty, 

JNoith Caiolma, a few miles from Monroe, the conntv seat The 
county was named Union, a few years ngo, in lonoi of The 
U^K,n's indomitable defender, and in rebuke of ' neighboring nut 
Z,:J\ ™^ P^PO^ed to eall the county Jacfaon, but Uni°on was 

:':;;fy1i7n::'s:rsr: '-"-"-'^ - ^^^ «« "^-^ 

and raised a crop. Then, the father of the family, h s wofk a I 
mcomplete sickened and died: bis two boys bring still very 

.crs;X-"m..'^'- ^''•"""^'' '" '-'"■ ™^ was e,,:;? 

_ In a rude farm-wagon the coi-pse, accompanied, as it seems, in , 

ZZ: lb r '^ i" *1 ""'^ '■"""'5'' ™' --W^d to the 'o d f 
^.i.vhw church-y.ard, and interred. No stone marks the spot 
beneath w-hich the bones have moldered; but tradition poLH 

ttie place where Andrew Jackson lies is known by the gravestones 

ss:^:id':t"hr " ''- ^^^'^ ^«'^«°- *^' «--f-*. »-^ 

A little church (the third that has stood near that spot), havi/- 

bli rf^tt: r'' f /'" -«'-!-*-! - its appeaii^^" rese„° 
bling mther a neat farm-house, stands, not in the church-yard. 



12 LIFE OF ANDKEW JACKSOJSr. [1767. 

but a short distance from it. Huge trees, with smaller pines 
among them, rise singly and in clumps, as they were originally left 
by those who first subdued the wilderness there. Great roots of 
trees roughen the red clay roads. Old as the settlement is, the 
country is but thinly inhabited, and the few houses near look like 
those of a just-peopled country in the Northern States. Miles and 
miles and miles, you may ride in the pine woods and " old fields" 
of that country, without meeting a vehicle or seeing a living crea- 
ture. So that when the stranger stands in that church-;yjard among 
the old graves, though there is a house or two not far off, but 
not in sight, he has the feeling of one who comes upon the ancient 
burial-place of a race extinct. Rude old stones are there that 
were placed over graves when as yet a stone-cutter was not in the 
province ; stones upon which, coats-of-arms were once engraved, 
still partly decipherable ; stones which are modern compared with 
these, yet record the exploits of revolutionary soldiers ; stones so 
old that every trace of inscription is lost, and stones as new as the 
new year. The inscriptions on the gravestones are unusually sim- 
ple and direct, and free from sniveling and cant. A large number 
of them end with Pope's line (incorrectly quoted) which declares 
an honest man to be the noblest woi'k of God. 

The bereaved family of the Jacksons never returned to their home 
on the banks of Twelve Mile Creek, but went from the church-yard 
to the house, not far off, of one of Mrs. Jackson's brothers-in-law, 
George McKemey by name, whose remains now re])ose in the 
same old burying-ground. A few nights after, Mrs. Jackson was 
seized with the pains of labor. There was a swift sen-ding of 
messengers to the neighbors, and a hurrying across the fields of 
friendly women; and before the sun rose, a son was born, the 
son whose career and fortunes we have undertaken to relate. It 
was in a small log-liouse, in the province of North Carolina, less 
than a quarter of a mile from the boundary line between North 
and South Carolina, that the birth took place. 

Andrew Jackson, then, was born in Union county. North Caro- 
lina, on the 15th of March, 1767. 

Geneial Jji,eksou always supposed himself to be a native of 
South Carolina. *' Fellow citizens of my native State !" he ex- 
claims, at the close of his proclamation to the nullifiers of South 
Carolina ; but it is as certain as any fact of the kind can be that 



1767.] CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION. 13 

he was mistaken. The clear and uniform tradition of the neigh- 
borhood, 'supported by a great mass of indisputable testimony, 
points to a spot in JVorth Carolina, but only a stone's throw from 
the line that divides it from South CaroUna, as the birthplace of 
AndreAV Jackson. 

In a large field, near the edge of a wide, shalloAV ravine, on the 
plantation of Mr. T. J. Cureton, there is to be seen a great clump, 
or natural summer-house, of graj)e-vines. Some remains of old 
fruit trees near by, and a spring a little way down the ravine, 
indicate that a human habitation once stood near this spot. It is 
a still and' solitary place, away from the road, in a red, level 
region, where the young pines are in haste to cover the well-worn 
cotton fields, and man se^us half inclined to let them do it, and 
move to Texas. Upon looking under the masses of grape-vine, a 
heap of large stones showing traces of fire is discovered. These 
stones once formed the chimney and fireplace of the log-house, 
wherein George Mckemey lived and Andrew Jackson was born. 
On that old yellow hearth-stone, Mrs. Jackson lulled her infant to 
sleep and brooded ovej' her sad bereavement, and thought anxiously 
respecting the future of her fatherless boys. Sacred spot ! not so 
much because there a hero was born, as because there a noble 
mother suffered, sorrowed, and accepted her new lot, and bravely 
bent herself to her more than double weight of care and toil. 

Mrs. Jackson remained at this house three weeks. Then, 
leaving her eldest son behind to aid her brother-in-law on his farm, 
she removed with her second son and the new-born infant, to the 
residence of another brother-in-law, Mr. Crawford, with whom 
P'he had cros'sed the ocean, and who then lived two miles distant. 
Mrs. Crawford was an invalid, and Mrs. Jackson was permanently 
established in the family as housekeeper and poor relation. 



CHAPTER II. 

CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION". 

In the family of his Uncle Crawford, Andy Jackson (for by this 
familiar name he is still spoken of in the neighborhood), spent the 
first ten or twelve years of his life. Mr. Crawford was a man of 



14 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1777. 

considerable substance for a new country, and his family was 
large. He lived in South Carolina, just over the boundary hne, 
near the Waxhaw Creek, and six miles from the Catawba River. 
The land there lies well for farming; level but not flat;, undu- 
lating, but without hills of inconvenient hight. The soil is a stiiF, 
red clay, the stifFest of the stiif, and the reddest of the red ; the 
kind of soil which bears hard usage, and makes the very worst 
winter roads anywhere to be found on this planet. Except where 
there is an interval of fettile soil, the country round about is a 
boundless continuity of pine woods, wherein to this day, wild 
turkeys and deer are shot, and the farmers take their cotton to 
market in immense wagons of antique pattern, a journey of half a 
week, and camp out every night. As evening closes in, the pass- 
ing traveler sees the mules, the negro driver, the huge covered 
wagon, the farmer, and sometimes his wife with an infant, 
grouped in the most strikingly picturesque manner, in an opening 
of the forest, around a blazing fire of pine knots, that light up the 
scene like an illumination. Just so, doubtless, did the farmers in 
Andy's day transport their produce ; and, many a time, I doubt 
not, he slept by the camp-fire ; for the Carolina boys like nothing 
better than to go to market with their fathers, and share in the 
glorious ad\enture of sleeping out-of-doors. In such a country as 
this, with horses to ride, and cows to hunt, and journeys to make, 
and plenty of boys, black and white, to play with, our little friend 
Andy spent his early years. 

In due time the boy was sent to an " old-field school," an institu- 
tion not much unlike the roadside schools in Ireland, of which we 
read. The northern reader is, perhaps, not aware *that an " old 
field" is not a field at all, but a pine forest. When crop after 
crop of cotton, without rotation, has exhausted the soil, the fences 
are taken away, the land lies waste, the young pines at once 
spring up, and soon cover the whole field with a thick growth 
of wood. In one of these old fields, the rudest possible shanty of 
a log-house is erected, with a fireplace that extends from side to 
side, and occupies a third of the interior. In winter, the inter- 
stices of the log walls are filled up with clay, which the restless 
fingers of the boys make haste to remove, in time to admit the 
first warm airs of spring. An itinerant schoolmaster presents 
himself in a neighborhood ; the responsible farmers pledge him a 



lV7V.] CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION. 15 

certain number of pupils, and an old-field school is established for 
the season. Such schools, called by the same name, exist to this 
day in the Carolinas, differing little from those which Andrew 
Jackson attended in his childhood. Reading, writing and arithmetic 
were all the branches taught in the early day. Among a crowd of 
4irchins, seated on the slab benches of a school like this, fancy a tall, 
slender boy, with blue bright eyes, a freckled face, au abundance 
of long sandy hair, and clad in coarse copperas-colored cloth, with 
bare feet dangling and kicking — and you have in your mind's eye 
a picture of Ajidy, as he appeared in his old-field school days in 
the Waxhaw settlement. 

But Mrs. Jackson, it is said, had more ambitious views for her 
youngest son. She aimed to give him a liberal education, in the 
hope that he would one day become a clergyman in the Presbyte- 
rian Church. It is probable that her condition was not one of 
absolute dependence. The tradition of the neighborhood is, that 
she was noted, the country round, for her skill in spinning flax, 
and that she earned money by spinning to pay for Andrew's 
schooling. It is possible, too, that her relations in Ireland may 
have contributed something to her support. General Jackson had 
a distinct recollection of her receiving presents of linen from the 
old country, and, particularly, one parcel, the letter accompanying 
which was lost, to the sore grief of the old lady; for, in those days, 
a letter from " home" was a treasure beyond price. The impression 
that she was not destitute of resources is strengthened by the fact, 
that Andrew, at an early age, attended some of the better schools 
of the country — schools kept by clergymen, .in w^hich the languages 
were taught, and young men prepared for college and for the 
ministry. 

The first school of this kind that he attended was an academy 
in the Waxhaw settlement, of which one Dr. Humphries was 
master. The site of the large log-house in which Dr. Humphries 
kept his school is still pointed out, but no traces of it remain ; nor 
can any information respecting the school, its master, or its pupik 
be now obtained. There is also a strong tradition that young 
Jackson attended a school in Charlotte, X. C, then called Queen's 
College, a school of renown at that day. The inhabitants of the 
pleasant town of Charlotte all believe this. Jackson himself once 
bald that he went to school there. When a delegation went from 



16 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1777. 

Charlotte to Washington to ask Congress to establish a mint in 
the gold region, President Jackson was told by one of them that 
gold had been found in the very hill on which Queen's College 
had once stood. To which the President replied, " Then it must 
have grown since I went to school there, for there was no gold 
there then ;" a remark which the geologists of Charlotte still 
facetiously quote when the question of the origin of gold is dis- 
cussed among them. 

There are yet living several persons whose fathers were school- 
mates of Andrew Jackson ; and though none of them can say pos- 
itively where he went to school, nor who were his teachers, nor 
what he learned, yet all of them derived from their fathers some 
general and some particular impressions of his character and con- 
duct as a school-boy. Such incidents and traits as have thus come 
down to us, will not be regarded, I trust, as too trivial for brief 
record. 

Andy was a wild, frolicsome, willful, mischievous, daring, reck- 
less boy ; generous to a friend, but never content to submit to a 
stronger enemy. He was passionately fond of those sports which 
are mimic battles ; above all, wrestling. Being a slender boy, more 
active than strong, he was often thrown. 

" I could throw him three times out of four," an old schoolmate 
used to say; "but he would never stay throwed. He was dead 
game, even then, and never would give up." 

He was exceedingly fond of running foot-races, of leaping the 
bar, and jumping ; and in such sports he was excelled by no one 
of his years. To younger boys, who never questioned his masteiy, 
he was a generous protector ; there was nothing he would not do 
to defend them. His equals and superiors found him self-willed, 
somewhat overbearing, easily offended, very irascible, and, upon the 
whole, "difficult to get along with." One of them said, many 
years after, in the heat of controversy, that of all the boys he had 
ever known, Andrew Jackson was the only bully who was not also 
a coward. 

But the boy, it appears, had a special cause of irritation in a dis- 
agreeable disease, name unknown, which induces a habit of^ — not 
to put too fine a point on it — " slobbering," Woe to any boy who 
presumed to jest at this misfortune ! Andy was upon him incon- 
tinently, and there was either a fight or a drubbing. There is a 



1777.] CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION. 17 

story, too, of some boys secretly loading a gun to the muzzle, and 
giving it to young Jackson to fire off, that they might have the 
pleasure of seeing it " kick" him over. They had that pleasure. 
Springing up from the ground, the boy, in a frenzy of passion, 
exclaimed : 

" By G— d, if one of you laughs, I'll kill him !" 

And no*one dared to laugh. It was a swearing age, the reader 
will remember. The expression, " By G — d," was almost as fa- 
miliar to the men of that day as m.o^i Dieu now is to Frenchmen, 
or mein Gott to Germans. It was used commonly by fox-hunting 
clergymen, there is reason to believe. So, at least, we may infer 
from the comedies and novels of the period. 

Frolic, however, not fight, was the rulmg interest of Jackson's 
childhood. He pursued his sports with the zeal and energy of his 
nature. No boy ever lived who liked fun better than he, and his 
fun, at that day, was of an innocent and rustic character, such as 
strengthens the constitution, and gives a cheery tone to the feel- 
ings ever after. 

I can only add a second-hand reminiscence of a rainy-day de- 
bate between Andy and one of his uncles, related to me by a son 
of that uncle. The subject of the discussion Avas, What makes 
the gentleman ? The boy said. Education ; the uncle. Good Prin- 
ciples. The question was earnestly debated between them, with- 
out either being able to convince the other. 

If our knowledge of the school-life of Jackson is scanty, we are 
at no loss to say what he learned and what he failed to learn at [ 
school. He learned to read, to write, and cast accounts — little 
more. If he began, as he may have done, to learn by heart, in the 
old-fashioned way, the Latin grammar, he never acquired enough 
of it to leave any traces of classical knowledge in his mind or his 
writings. In some of his later letters there may be found, it is 
true, an occasional Latin phrase of two or three words, but so 
quoted as to show ignorance rather than knowledge. He was 
never a well-informed man. He never was addicted to books. f 
He never learned to write the English lai%uage correctly, though, 
he often wrote it eloquently and convincingly. He never learned 
to spell correctly, though he was a better speller than Frederic 
II., Marlborough, Napoleon, or Washington. Few men of his 
day, and no women, were correct spellers. And, indeed, we may 



18 



LIFE OF ANDREW J A C K S O :-' . [iVVT. 



say that all the most illustrious men have been bad spellers, ex- 
cept those who could not spell at all. The scrupulous exactness in 
that respect, which is now so common, ,was scarcely known three 
generations ago. 

The schools, then, contributed little to the equipment of this 
eager boy for the battle of life. He derived much from the honest 
and pure people among whom he was brought up. Their instinct 
of hwiesty was strong within him always. He imbibed a rever- 
ence for the character of Avoman, and a love of purity, which, 
amid all his wild ways, kept him stainless. In this particular, I 
believe he was without reproach from youth to old age. He 
deeply loved his mother, and held her memory sacred to tlie end 
of his life. He used often to speak of the courage she had displayed 
when left without a protector in the wilderness, and would some- 
times clinch a remark or an argument by saying, ^''That I learned 
from my good old mother." 

He was nine years old when the Declaration of Independence 
was signed. By the time the war approached the Waxhaw settle- 
ment, bringing blood and terror with*it, leaving desolation behind 
it, closing all school-houses, and putting a stop to the peaceful 
labors of the people, Andrew Jackson was little more than thir- 
teen. His brother Hugh, a man of stature, if not in years, had not 
waited for the war to come near his home, but had mounted his 
horse a year before, and ridden southward to meet it. He was one 
of the troopers of that famous regiment, to raise and equip which, 
its colonel, William Richardson Davie, spent the last guinea of his 
inherited estate. Under Colonel Davie, Hugh Jackson fought in 
the ranks of the battle of Stono, and died, after the action, of heat 
and fatigue. His brother Robert was a strapping lad, but too 
young for a soldier, and was still at home with his mother and 
Andrew, when Tarleton and his dragoons thundered along the red 
roads of the Waxhaws, and dyed them a deeper red with the blood 
of the surprised militia. 



1780.] DURING THE KEVOLUTIONART WAR. 19 

CHAPTER III. . * 

DURING THE REYOLUTIONART "WAR. 

It was on the 29th of May, 1.780, that Tarleton, with three hun- 
dred horsemen, surprised a detachment of militia in the Waxhaw 
settlement, aijd killed one hundred and thirteen of them, and wound- 
ed a hundred and fifty. The wounded, abandoned to the care of 
the settlers, were quartered in the houses of the vicinity ; the old 
log Waxhaw meeting-house itself being converted into a hospital 
for the most desperate cases. Mrs. Jackson was one of the kind 
women who ministered to the wounded soldiers in the church, and 
under that roof her boys first saw what war was.. The men were 
dreadfully mangled. Some had received as many as thirteen 
woiinds, and none less than three. For many days Andrew and 
his brother assisted their mother in v\'aiting upon the sick men ; 
Andrew, more in rage than pity, burning to avenge their wounds 
and his brother's death. 

Tarleton had fiiUen upon the Waxhaws like a summer storm, 
which bursts upon us unawares, does its destructive work, and 
rolls thundering {iway. The families who had fled returned soon 
to their homes, and the wounded men recovered, or found rest in 
the old church-yard. Then came rumors of the apjjroach of 
a larger body of royal troops under Lord Rawdon, who soon 
arrived in the Waxhaw country,, demanding of every one a 
formal promise not to take part in the war thereafter. Mrs. 
Jackson, her boys, the Crawfords, and a majority of their neigh- 
bors, abandoned their homes and retired a few miles to the north, 
rather than enter into a covenant so abhorrent to their feelings. 
A few days later, Rawdon was compelled to retrace his steps, 
and the Waxhaw people returned to their farms again. Once 
more that summer they were alarmed by a hostil-e assemblage 
a few miles distant, and prepared for a third flight ; but the 
" murderous tories " were dispersed in time, and our friends still 
clung to their homes. The men who were able to bear arms 
were generally away with* their companies, and the women, chil- 
dren, and old men passed their days and nights in fear, ready at 
any moment for flight. 



20 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1*780. 

Tarleton's massacre at the Waxhaws kindled the flames of war 
in all that re^on of the Carolinas. Many notable actions were 
fought, and some striking thongh nnimportant advantages were 
gained by the patriot forces. Andrew Jackson and his brother 
Robert were present at Sumpter's gallant blundering attack upon 
the British post of Hanging Rock, near Waxhaw, where the 
patriots half gained the day, and lost it by beginning too soon to 
drink tiie rum they captured from the enemy. The Jackson 
boys rode on this expedition with Colonel Davie, a most brave, 
self-sacrificing officer, who, as we have said, commanded the 
troop of which Hugh Jackson was a member when he died, after 
the battle of Stono. Neither of the boys were attached to Davie's 
company, nor is it likely that Andrew, a boy of thirteen did more 
til an witness the afiair at the Hanging Rock. If he was in a 
jDOsition to observe the movements of the troops, or if he ovei'heard 
the coTnments of Colonel Davie upon the battle, he received a 
lesson in the art of war. Colonel Davie attributed the failure of 
the attack to the circumstance that the men dismounted a hundred 
yards too late. " Dismounting under fire is an operation that 
tasks the discipline of the best troops, and is sure to discompose 
militia," maintained Colonel Davie in the council. Sumpter 
thought it best to dash in on horseback to a point near the enemy's 
works; then dismount, and rush upon them on foot. This was 
attempted, but the attempt was only half successful, owing to the 
confusion caused by dismounting iinder fire. The rum finished what 
error began, and the affair ended in a debauch instead of a victory. 

This Colonel Davie, Hugh Jackson's old commander, was the 
man, above all others who led Carolina troops in the Revolution, 
that the Jackson boys admired. He was a man after A-ndrew's 
own heart; swift, but wary; bold in planning enterprises, but 
'most cautious in execution ; sleeplessly vigilant ; untiringly active ; 
one of those cool, quick men Avho apply mother-wit to the art of 
war ; who are good soldiers because they are earnest and clear- 
sighted men. So far as any man was General Jackson's model 
soldier, William Richardson Davie, of North Carolina, was the 
individual. Davie, it is worth mentioning, was a native of 
England, and lived there till he was five years old. 

The boys rejoined their mother at the "Waxhaw settlement. On 
the 16th of August, 1780, occurred the great disaster of the war in 



1780.] UURIXG THE RE VOLUTI O N A K Y WAR. 21 

the South, the defeat of General Gates. The victor, Cornwallis, 
moved three weeks after, with his whole army, toward the Wax- 
haws ; which induced Mrs. Jackson and her boys once more to 
abandon their home for a safer retreat north of the scene of war. 

How Mrs. Jackson and her son Robert performed this journey 
in those terrible days, there is no information. But through the 
excellent memory of a lady who died only a very few years ago, 
the reader can have a clear glimpse of Andrew, as he appeared to 
mortal view while he was on hi§ northward journey, just after the 
defeat of Gates. The lady referred to was Mrs. Susan Smart, to 
whose high respectability and careful vei'acity all the people of 
Charlotte, North Carohna, near which she lived for four score years, 
will cheerfully testify. Her single reminisceiice of Andrew Jackson 
I obtained from her intimate friends in Charlotte, to whom she was 
in the habit of telling it. 

Time — late in the afternoon of a hot, dusty September day in 1 780. 
Place — the high road, five miles below Charlotte, where Mrs. Smart 
then hved, a saucy girl of fourteen, at the home of her parents. The 
news of Gates' defeat had flown over the country, but every one was 
gasping for details, especially those who had fathers and brothers in 
the patriot army. The father and brother of Mrs. Smart were in 
that army, and the family, as yet, knew nothing of their fate ; a 
condition of suspense to which the women of the Caroliuas were 
well used during the revolutionary war. It was the business of 
Susan, during those days, to take post at one of the windows, and 
there watch for travelers coming from the South ; and, upon spying 
one, to fly out upon him and ask him for news of the army, and of the 
corps to which her father and brother were attached. Thus posted, 
she descried, on the afternoon to which we have referred, riding 
rapidly on a 'i grass pony" (one of the ponies of the South Carolina 
swamps, rough, Shetlandish,wild),a tall, slender, "gangling fellow;" 
legs long enough to meet under the pony almost ; damaged, wide- 
brimmed hat flapping down over his face, which was yellow and 
worn ; the figure covered with dust ; tired-looking, as though the 
youth had ridden till he could scarcely sit on his pony ; the forlorn- 
est apparition that ever revealed itself to the eyes of Mrs. Susan 
Smart during the whole of her long life. She ran out to the road 
and hailed him. He reined in his pony, when the following brief 
conversation ensued between them : — 



22 LIFE or ANDREW JACKSON. [l781. 

She. — " "Whei-e ai-e you from ?" 

He.—" From below." 

She. — " Where ai-e you going?"* 
. He.—" Above." 

She.—" Who are you for ?" 

He.—" The Congress." 

She. — " What are you dohig below ?" 

He. — "Oh, we are popping them still." 

She (to herself). — " It's mighty poor popping such as you will do, 
any how." (Aloud). — " What's your name ?" 

He. — "Andrew Jackson." 

She asked him respecting her father's regiment, and he gave her 
what information he possessed. He then galloped away toward 
Charlotte, and Susan returned to the house to tell his news and ridi- 
cule the figure he had cut — the gangling fellow on the grass pony. 
Years after she used to laugh as she told the story ; and later, when 
the most thrilling news of the time used to come to remote Char- 
lotte associated with the name of Andrew Jackson, still she would 
bring out her little tale, until, at last, she made it get votes for him 
for the presidency. 

Good fortune gave me the acquaintance, in Charlotte, of a gentle- 
man who is the grandson of the lady to whose house Andrew was 
going on this occasion. He was bound to Mrs. Wilson's, a few miles 
above Charlotte, where he spent several weeks. Mrs. Wilson, a 
distant connection of Mrs. Jackson, was the mother of an eminent 
clergyman of North Carolina, Rev. Dr. Wilson, who was a boy 
when Andrew Jackson rode to his mother's house on the grass pony. 
The two boys soon became friends and playmates, though the rough 
ways and wild words of Andrew rather astonished the staid son of 
Mrs. Wilson, as he used many a time to relate. The gentleman 
referred to above is a son Of Dr. Wilson, and remembers two or three 
interesting things which his father and grandmother were accus- 
tomed to report of the boy. 

At Mrs. Wilson's, Andrew paid for his board by doing what New 
England people call "chores." He brought in wood, " pulled fod- 
der," 2:)icked beans, drove cattle, went to mill, and took the farming 
utensils to be mended. Respecting the last named duty there is a 
striking reminiscence. " Never," Dr. Wilson would say, " did An- 
drew come home from the shops without bringing with him some 



1781.] DURING THE K E V O L U T I O N A K Y AV A K . 23 

new weaj)on with which to kill the enemy. Sometimes it was a 
rude spear, which he would forge while waiting for the blacksmith 
to finish his job. Sometimes it was a cl^b or a tomahawk. Once 
he fastened the blade of a scythe to a pole, and, on reaching home, 
began to cut down the weeds with it that grew about the house, 
assailing them with extreme fury, and occasionally uttering Avords 
like these : 

" ' Oh, if I were a man, how I would sweep down the British 
with my grass blade !' " 

Dr. Wilson remembered saying to his mother when they were 
talking of Andrew one day, 

"Mother, Andy will fight his way in the world." 

The doctor lived to see his prediction fulfilled, and, though he 
would never vote for his old companion, he rejoiced exceedingly 
when he heard, sixty years after, that this swearing, roystering 
lad had come to be a contrite old man. 

In February, 1781, the country about the Waxhaws being 
tranquil, because subdued, Mrs. Jackson, her sons and many of 
her neighbors, returned to their ravaged homes. Andrew soon 
after passed his fourteenth birthday, an overgrown youth, as tall as 
a man, but weakly from having grown too fast. Then ensued a 
spring and summer of small, fierce, intestine warfare ; a war of 
whig and tory, neighbor against neighbor, brother against broth- 
er, and even father against son. General Jackson used to give, 
among other instances of the madness that prevailed, the case of 
a whig, who, having found a friend murdered and mutilated, de- 
voted hitnself to the slaying of tories. He hunted and lay in wait 
for them, and before the war ended, had killed twenty ; and then, 
recovering from that insanity, lived the rest of his days a con- 
science-sti'icken wretch. The story of Mrs. Motte, who assisted to 
fire her own house — the finest house in all the country round — 
rather than it should serve as a British post, was another whicii 
the General remembered of this period. 

Without detaining the reader Avitb a detail of the revolutionary 
history of the Carolinas, I yet desire to show what a war-charged 
atmosphere it was that young Andrew breathed during this form- 
ing peftod of his life, especially toward the close of the war, after 
the great operations ceased. The reader shall, at least, have a 
glimpse or two of the Carolinas during the Revolution. 



24 LIFE OF ANDREW. JACKSON. [1781. 

The peoi^le in the upper country of the Carolinas little expected 
that the war woi^ld ever reach settlements so remote, so ob- 
scure, so scattered as theirs. And it did not for some years. 
When at last the storm of war drew near their borders, it found 
them a divided people. The old sentiment of loyalty was still 
rooted in many minds. There were many who had taken a recent 
and special oath of allegiance to the king, which they considered 
bidding in all circumstances. They were Highlanders, clannish and 
religiously loyal, who pointed to the text, *' Fear God and honor 
the king," and overlooked the fact that the biblical narrative con- 
demns the Jews for desiring a kingly government. There were 
Moravians and Quakers, who conscientiously opposed all war. 
There were Catholic Irish, many of whom sided with the king. 
There were Protestant Scotch-Irish, whigs and agitators in the old 
country, whigs and fervent patriots in the new. There were place- 
holders, who adhered to their official bread and dignity. There 
were trimmers, who espoused the side that chanced to be strongest. 
The approach and collision of hostile forces converted most of these 
factions into belligerents, who waged a most fierce and deadly war 
upon one another, renewing on this new theater the border wars of 
another age and country. It was a war of chiefs rather than gen- 
erals, of banditti rather than armies ; a war of exploits, expeditions, 
surprises, sudden devastation, fierce and long pursuits ; a war half 
Indian and half Scotch-clannish. Such warfare intensely excites 
the feelings, and allows no interval of serenity. 

Who can imagine the state of things when such an occurrence 
as this c<>uld take place, and be thought quite regular and cor- 
I'ect? "A few days afterward (1*780), in Rutherford county, N. 
C. (a hundred miles from Waxhaw), the principal officers held a 
court-martial over some of the most audacious and murderous 
tories, and selected thirty-two as victims for destruction, and 
•commenced hanging three at a time, until they hung nine, and 
respited the rest." This is mentioned without remark in a matter- 
of-fact account of the battle of King's Mountain, by an officer who 
fought in that battle. 

No boy of the least spirit, could escape the contagion of an 
animosity so intense and general. There was certainly one who 
did not. There were others, also, as we may infer from one of 
Mr. Lossing's anecdotes: — "The British officers were hospitably 



IVSl.J DUltlNG THE REVOL UTIo;-f AR Y WAR. 25 

eutertained by Dr. Anthony Newman, notwithstanding he was a 
whig. There, in the presence of Tarleton and others, Dr. New- 
maji's two little sons were engaged in playing the game of the 
battle of the Cowpens with grains of corn, a red grain repre- 
senting the British officers, and a white one the Americans. 
Washington and Tarleton were particularly represented, and as 
one pursued the other, as in a real battle, the little fellows shouted, 
'Hurrah for Washington, Tarleton runs! Hurrah for Washing- 
ton !' Tarleton looked on for awhile, but becoming irritated, he 
exclaimed, ' See the cursed little rebels !' " 

How often must our fiery Andrew have drunk, with greedy ear, 
the bloody tales that were cxu'rent then, and how they must have 
nourished in him those feelings which are akin to war and strife ! 
I wonder if he chanced to hear, that at Charleston, in the early 
period of the war cotton bales were used in the construction of a 
fort. I wonder if he heard of the servants of the British officers, 
thickening their masters' soup with hair powder, in the scarcity of 
flour; of Marion splitting saws into sword-bl^des ; of the patriot 
militia going to battle with more men than muskets, and the un- 
armed ones watching the strife till a comrade fell, and then running 
in to seize his weapon, and to use it. It is likely. In his. inflamed 
imagination, the mild Cornwallis figured as a relentless savage ; 
Tarleton as a devil incarnate, and all red-coated sons of Britain, as 
the natural enemies of man. " Oh, if I were a man, how I would 
sweep down the British Svith my grass blade !" 

Well, the time came, when Andrew and his brother began to 
play men's parts in the drama. Without enlisting in any organ- 
ized corps, they joined small parties that Svent out on single enter- 
prises of retaliation, mounted on their own horses, and carrying 
their own weapons. Let us see what befell them while serving thus. 

In that fierce, Scotch-Indian warfare, the absence of a father from 
home was often a better protection to his family than his presence, 
because his presence invited attack. The main object of both 
parties was to kill the fighting men, and to avenge the slaying of 
partisans. And thus it came to pass, that when a whig soldier of 
any note desired to spend a night with his family, his neighbors 
were accustomed to turn out, and serve as a guard to his house 
while he slept. Behold Robert and. Andrew Jackson, with six 
others, thus employed one night in the spring of 1781, at the domi- 
2 ♦ 



26 LIFE O F AN D RE W JACKSON . [l782. 

cile of a neighbor, Captain Sands. The guard on this occasion was 
more a friendly tribute to an active partisan than a service consid- 
ered necessary to liis safety. In short, the night was not far ad- 
vanced, before the whole party were snugly housed and stretched 
upon the floor, all sound asleep, except one, a British deserter, who 
was restless, and dozed at intervals. 

Danger was near. A band of tories, bent on taldng the life of 
Captain Sands, approached the house in two divisions ; one party 
moYing toward the front door, the other toward the back. The 
wakeful soldier, hearing a suspicious noise, rose, went out of doors 
to learn its cause, and saw the foe stealthily nearing the house. He 
ran in in terror, and seizing Andreyv Jackson, who lay next the 
door, by the hair, exclaimed, 

" The tories are upon us !" 

Andrew sprang up, and ran out. Seeing a body of men in 
the distance, he placed the end of his gun in the low fork of a 
tree near the door, and hailed them. No reply. He hailed 
them a second time. No reply. They quickened their pace, 
and had come within a few rods of the door. By this time, too, 
the guard in the house had been roused, and were gathered in a 
group behind the boy. Andrew discharged his musket ; upon which 
the tories fired a volley, which killed the hapless deserter who had 
given the alarm. The other party of tories, who were approach- 
ing the house from the other side, hearing this discharge, and the 
rush of bullets above their heads, supposed that the firing proceeded 
from a party that had issued from the house. They now fired a 
volley, which sent a shower of balls whistling about the heads of 
their friends on the othfr side. Both parties hesitated, and then 
halted. Andrew having thus, by his single dischai-ge, puzzled and 
stopped the enemy, retired to the house, where he and his comrades 
kept up a brisk fire from the windows. One of the guard fell 
mortally wounded by his side, and another received a wound less 
severe. In the midst of this singular contest, a bugie was heard, 
some distance off", sounding the cavalry charge ; whereupon the 
tories, concluding that they had come upon an ambush of whigs, 
and were about to be assailed by horse and foot, fled to where they 
had left their horses, mounted, dashed pell-mell into the woods, 
arid were seen no more. It appeared afterward, that the bugle 
charge was sounded by a neighbor, who judging from the noi.-e of 



1781. J DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 27 

musketry that Captain Sands was attacked, and having not a man 
with him in his house, gave the blast upon the trumpet, thinking 
that even a trick so stale, aided by the darkness of the night, might 
have some eftect in alarming the assailants. 

The next time the Jackson boys smelt powder, they were not so 
fortunate. The activity and zeal of the Waxhaw whigs coming to 
the ears of Lord Rawdon, whom Cornwallis had left in command, 
he dispatched a small body of dragoons to aid the tories of that 
infected neighborhood. The Waxhaw people, hearing of the ap- 
proach of this hostile force, resolved upon i-esisting it in open fight, 
and named the Waxhaw meeting-house as the rendezvous.. Forty 
whigs assembled on the appointed day, mounted and armed ; and 
among them were Robert and Andrew Jackson. In the grove 
about the old church, these forty were waiting for the arrival — ■ 
hourly expected — of another company of whigs from a neighboring 
settlement. The British officer in command of the dragoons, ap- 
prised of the r^dezvous by a tory of the neighborhood, determined 
to surprise the patriot party before the two companies had united. 
Before coming in sight of the church, he placed a body of tories, 
wearing the dress of the country, far in advance of his soldiers, and 
so marched upon the devoted band. The Waxhaw party saw a 
company of armed men approaching, but concluding them to be 
their expected friends, made no preparations for defense. Too late 
the error was discovered. Eleven of the forty were taken prison- 
ers, and the rest sought safety in flight, fiercely pursued by the 
dragoons. The brothers were separated. Andrew found himself 
gallo]jing for life and liberty by the side of his cousin. Lieutenant 
Thomas Crawford ; a dragoon close behind them, and others com- 
ing rapidly on. They tore along the road awhile, and then took to 
a swampy field, where they came soon to a wide slough of water and 
mire, into which they plunged their horses. Andrew floundered 
across, and on reaching dry land again, looked round for his com- 
panion, whose horse had sunk into the mire and fallen. He saw him 
entangled, and trying vainly to ward off the blows of his pursuers 
with his sword. Before Andrew could turn to assist him, the 
lieutenant received a severe wound in the head, which compelled 
him to give up the contest and surrender. The youth put spurs to 
his horse and succeeded in eluding pursuit. Robert, too, escaped 
unhurt, and in the course of the day the brothers were reunited, 



28 LIFE O F AN D R E W J ACK S O N. [1781. 

and took refuge in a thicket, in which they passed a huDgiy and 
anxious night. 

The next morning, the pangs of hunger compelled them to leave 
their safe retreat and go in quest of food. The nearest house Avas 
that of Lieutenant Crawford. Leaving their horses and arms in the 
thicket, the lads crept toward the .house, which they reached in 
safety. Meanwhile, a tbry-traitor of the neighborhood had scented 
out their lurking-place, found their horses and weapons, and set a 
party of dragoons upon their track. Before the family had a sus- 
picion of danger, the house was surrounded, the doors were secur- 
ed, and the boys were prisoners. 

A scene ensued which left an impression upon the mind of one 
of the boys which time never effaced. Regardless of the fact that 
the house was occupied by the defenseless wife and young children 
of a wounded soldier, the dragoons, brutalized by this mean parti- 
san warfare, began to destroy, with wild riot and noise, the con- 
tents of the house. Crockery, glass, and furniture,* were dashed to 
pieces ; beds emptied ;* the clothing of the f:^mily torn to rags ; 
even the clothes of the infant that Mrs. Ci'awford carried in her 
arms were not spared. While this destruction Avas going on, the 
officer in command of the party ordered Andrew to clean his high 
jack-boots, which were well splashed and crusted with mud. The 
boy replied, not angrily, though Avith a certain firmness and deci- 
sion, in something like these words : 

" Sir, I ana a prisoner of war, and claim to be treated as such." 

The officer glared at him like a wild beast, and aimed a despe- 
rate blow at tlie boy's head Avith his sword. Andrew broke the force 
of the blow with his left hand, and thus received two wounds — one 
deep gash on his head, and another on his <band, thp marks of 
both of Avhich he carried to his'grave. The officer, after achieving 
this gallant feat, turned to Robert Jackson, and ordered him to 
clean the boots. Robert also refused. The valiant Briton struck 
the young man so violent a sword-bloAV upon the head, as to pros- 
trate and disable him. 

Those who were intimately acquainted Avith AndreAV Jackson, 
and they alone, can knoAV something of the feelings of the youth, 
while the e v'ents of this morning Avere trans])iiing ; Avliat paroxysms 
of contemptuous rage shook his slender frame, when he. saAV his 
cousin's wife insulted, her house profaned, his brother gashed; 



1781.] DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 29 

himself as powerless to avenge as to protect. '^Fll toarrant Andy 
thought of it at JVeio Orleans" said an aged relative of all the 
parties to me in an old farm-house, not far from the scene of this 
morning's dastardly work. , 

To horse. Andrew was ordered to mount, and to guide some of 
the party to the house of a noted whig of the vicinity, named 
Thompson. Threatened with instant death if he foiled to guide 
them aright, the youth submitted, and led the party in the right 
direction. A timely thought enabled him to be the deliverer of 
his neighbor, instead of his captor. Instead of approaching the 
house by the usual road, he conducted the party by a circuitous 
route, which brought them in sight of the house half a mile before 
they reached it. Andrew well knew that if Thom^^son was at home, 
he would be sure to have some one on the look-out, and a horse 
ready for the road. On coming in sight of the house, he saw 
Tliompson's horse saddled and bridled, standing at a rack in the 
yard; which informed him both that the master was there, and 
that he was prepared for flight. .The dragoons dashed forward to 
seize their prey. While they were still some hundreds of yards 
from the house, Andrew had the keen delight of seeing Thompson 
burst from his door, run to his horse, mount, and plunge into a 
foaming sv,^ollen creek that rushed by his house. He gained the 
opposite shore, and seeing that the dragoons dared not attempt the 
stream, gave a shout of defiance and galloped into the woods. 

The elation caused by the success of his stratagem, was soon 
swallowed up in misery. Andrew and Robert Jackson, Lieutenant 
Thomas Crawford, and twenty other prisoners, all the victims of 
this raid of the dragoons into the Waxhaws, were placed on horses 
stolen in the same settlement, and marched toward Camden, South 
Carolina, a great British depot at the time, forty miles distant. It 
was a long and agonizing journey, e-pecially to the wounded, 
among whom were the Jacksons and their cousin. Nlot an atom of 
food, nor a drop of water was allowed them on the way. Such 
was the brutality of the soldiers, that when these miserable lads 
tried to scoop up a little water from the streams which they forded, 
to appease their raging thirst, they were ordered to desist. 

At Camden their situation was one of utter wretchedness. Two 
hundred and fifty prisoners in a contracted inclosure drawn around 
the jail; no beds of any description ; no medicine; no rjedical at- 



30 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [l781. 

tendance, nor means of dressing the wounds ; their only food a 
scanty supply of bad bread. They were robbed even of part of 
their clothing, besides being subject to the taunts and threats of 
.fivery passing tory. The three relatives, it is said, were separated 
as soon as their relationship was discovered. Miserable among the 
miserable ; gaunt, yellow, hungry, and sick ; robbed of his jacket 
and shoes; ignorant of his brother's fate; chafing with suppressed 
fury, Andrew passed now some of the most wretched days of his 
life. Ere long, the small-pox, a disease unspeakably terrible at that 
day, more terrible than cholera or plague has ever been, broke out 
among the prisoners, and raged unchecked by medicine, and unal- 
leviated by any kind of attendance or nursing. The sick and the 
well, the dying aiM the dead ; those shuddering at the first symp- 
toms, and those putrid with the disease, were mingled together; 
and all but the dead were equally miserable. 

For some time Andrew escaped the contagion. He was reclin- 
ing one day in the sun, near the entrance of the prison, when the 
officer of the guard, attracted, as it seemed, by the youthfulness of 
his appearance, entered into conversation with him. The lad soon 
began to speak of that of which his heart was full — the concjition 
of the prisoners and the bad quality of their food. He remonstrated 
against their treatment with such energy and feeling that the ofli- 
cer seemed to be moved and shocked, and, what was far more im- 
portant, he was induced to ferret out the villainy of the contractors 
who had been robbing the prisoners of their rations. From the 
day of Andrew's remonstrance the condition of the prisoners was 
ameliorated ; they were supplied with meat and better bread, and 
were otherwise better cared for. 

What a thrill of joy ran through the prisoners' quarters one day 
at the rumor that" General Greene was coming to their deliverance ! 
He came with a brave little army of twelve hundred men. He ap- 
proached within a mile of Camden ; but, having outstripped his 
artillery, he deemed it best to encamp upon an eminence there, and 
wait for the guns to come up before attacking the place. To this 
conclusion he was the more inclined, as Lord Rawdon's force, in 
Camden, was inferior to his own. What excitement among the 
prisoners during the six days of General Greene's halt upon Hob- 
kirk's Hill ! On the arrival of General Greene's army, they w^ere 
hurried out of the redoubt about the jail, which was exposed to 



1781.] DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 31 

the cannon of an attacking enemy ; but, upon the British general 
discovering that Greene had no caunon, they were permitted to re- 
turn. The American army remaining inactive, Lord Rawdon re- 
solved, inferior as his force was, to attack General Greene's camp 
before his artillery should arrive ; a bold design and boldly exe- 
cuted. On the 24th of April the prisoners more than suspected, 
from the movements of the troops in the town and from the flying 
whispers which will precede a battle, that Greene was to be attacked 
the very next morning. The battle would decide their fate as well 
as that of one of the hostile armies. 

The inclosure in which the prisoners were confined would have 
connnanded a perfect view of General Greene's position but for a 
board fence which had been recently erected on the summit of the 
wall. On the afternoon of the 24th, Andrew looked for a crevice 
in the fence, but not one could he find. In the course of the night, 
however, he managed, with the aid of an old razor-blade which had 
been generously bestowed upon the jDrisoners as a meat-knife, to 
hack out a knot from the fence. The morning light found him spy- 
ing out the American position with eager eye. 

What he saw that morning through the knot-hole of his prison 
was his second lesson in the art of war. An impressive lesson it 
proved, and one he never forgot. There was the American en- 
campment spread out in full view before him at the distance of a 
mile. General Greene, being. well assured of Rawdon's weakness, 
and anticipating nothing so little as an attack from a man Avhom he 
supposed to be trembling for his own safety, neglected precautions 
against surprise. At ten in the morning, when Rawdon led out his 
nine hundred men to the attack, Andrew, mad with vexation, saw 
Greene's men scattered over the hill, cleaning their arms, washing 
their clothes, and playing games, totally unpreijared to resist. 
Rawdon, by taking a circuitous route, was enabled to break upon 
Greene's left Avith aU tne effect of a surprise. From his knot-hole 
the excited youth saw the sudden smoke of musketry, the rush of 
the Americans for their arms, the hasty falling in, the opening of 
Greene's fire, the fine dash of American horse upon Rawdon's rear, 
which almost turned the tide of fortune, and made every heart in the 
prison leap for joy as Andrew described it to the listening throng be- 
low him; then the wild flight of horses running riderless about the 
hUl, the fire slacking, and, alas ! i-eceding, till Rawdon's army swept 



32 LIFE OF ANDEE-\V JACKSON. [1781. 

OA^er the hill and vanished on the other side, Greene in full retreat 
before him. 

The prisoners were in desj^air. Andrew's spirits sank under this 
accumulation of miseries, and he began to sicken with the first 
symptoms of the sniall-pox. Robert was in a condition still worse. 
The wound in his head had never been dressed, and had not healed. 
He, too, reduced as he was, began to shiver and burn with the fever 
that announces the dread disease. Another week of prison life 
would have probably consigned both these boys to the grave. 

But tliey had a friend outside the prison — their mother, who, at 
this crisis of their fate, strove with the might of love for their deliv- 
erance. Learning their forlorn condition, this heroic woman went to 
Camden, and succeeded, after a time, in effecting an exchange of 
prisoners between a Waxhaw captain and tiie British general. The 
Avhig captain gave up thirteen soldiers, whom he had captured in 
the rear of the British army, and received in return the two sons of 
Mrs. Jackson and five of her neighbors. When the little family 
were reunited in the town of Camden, the mother could but gaze 
upon her boys with astonisliment and horror — so worn and Avasted 
were they Avith hunger, Avounds, and disease. Robert could not 
stand nor even sit on horseback without support. 

The mother, hoAvever, had no choice but to get them home imme- 
diately. Two horses were procured. One she rode herself. Rob- 
ert was placed upon the other, and hcjd in his seat by the returning 
prisoners, to Avhom Mrs. Jackson had ji^st given liberty. Beliind 
the sad jjrocession, poor AndrcAV dragged his Aveak and Aveary limbs, 
bare-headed, bare-footed, Avithout a jacket ; his only two garments 
torn and dirty. The forty miles of lonely Avilderness that lay he- 
tAveen Camden and Waxhaw Avere nearly traversed, and the fcA^ered 
lads were expecting in tAvo hours more to enjoy the bliss of repose, 
Avhen a chilly, drenching, merciless rain set in. When this occurred, 
the small-pox had reached that stage of development, Avhen, after hav- 
ing raged within the system, it Avas about to break out hi those loath- 
some sores Avhich give vent to the disease. Balk that effort of nature 
to throAV off the poison, audit is nearly certain to strike in and kill; 
and nothing is so sure to do this as a cold l)ath. The boys reached 
home, and Avent to bed. In tAvo days Robert Jackson was a corpse, 
and his bi'other AndrcAV a raA'ing maniac. 

A mother's nursing, medical skill, and a constitution sound at the 



1781.] DURING THK REVOLUTIONARY AVAR. 33 

core, brought tlie youth out of this peril, and set iiim upon the way 
to slow recovery. He was an invalid for several months. 

In the sunimer of 1781, a great cry of anguish and desjDair came 
up to Waxhaw from the Charleston prison-ships, wherein, among 
many hundreds of other prisoners, were confined some of the sons of 
Mrs. Jackson's sisters, and other friends and neighbors of hers from 
the Waxhaw country. Mrs. Jackson had seen at Camden what pris- 
oners of war may suffer, Avhen officers disdain their duty and con- 
tractors are scoundrels. She had also seen what a little vigor and tact 
can effect in the deliverance of prisoners. Andrev,^ was no sooner 
quite out of danger than his brave mother resolved to go to Charles- 
ton (distant one hundred and sixty miles), and do what she could for 
the comfort of the prisoners there. The tradition of the neighbor- 
hood now is, that she performed the entire journey on foot, in com- 
pany with two other women of like mind and purpose. It is more 
probable, however, and so thought General Jackson, that these 
gaUant women rode on horseback, carrying with them a precious 
store of gifts and rural luxuries and medicines for the solace of their 
imprisoned relatives, and bearing whole hearts full of tender mes- 
sages and })recious news from home. Protected, by being unpro- 
tected, they reached Charleston in safety, and gained admission to 
the ships, and emptied their hearts and saddle-bags, and brought 
such joy to the haggard prisoners as only prisoners know, wlieii 
angel women from home visit them. 

And thei'e the history of this blessed expedition ends. .^This only 
is further known of it. or will ever be : While stopping at the house 
of a relative, William Barton by name, who lived two miles and a 
. half from Charleston, Mrs. Jackson was seized with the ship fever, 
and, after a short illness, died, and was buried on the open plain near 
by. I have conversed with the daughter of William Barton, who is 
now Mrs. Thomas Faulkner, of Waxhaw : but she was not born 
when Mrs. Jackson died in her father's house, and she is able to add 
nothing to our knowledge of that event. One little fact she has 
heard her mother mention, which shows the careful honesty of this 
race. The clothes of Mrs. Jackson, a sorry bundle, were sent back 
from Charleston all the way to her sorrowing SoU. nt Waxhaw. 

It was not in the nature of Andrew Jackson not to mourn deeply 
the loss of such a mother ; and as. he lay recovering by imperceptible 
degrees from his ilhiess, he had leisure to dwell upon her virtues 



34 LIFE OF ANDREWJACKSON. [l782, 

and his own unhappiness. It was always a grief to him that he did 
not know where her remains were laid. As late in his life as 
during his presidency, he set on foot some inquiries respecting' the 
place of her burial, with the design of having her sacred dust con- 
veyed to the old church-yard at Waxhaw, where he wished to erect 
a monument in honor of both his parents. It was too late. No 
exact information could then be obtained, and the project was 
given up. No stone marks the burial place either of his father, 
mother, or brothers. 

And so Andrew, before reaching his fifteenth birthday, was an 
orphan; a sick and sorrowful orphan; a homeless and dependent 
orphan ; an orphan of the Revolution. 



CHAPTER IV. 

HE STUDIES LAW. 

CoRNWALLis surrendered at Yorktown, on the 19th of October, 
1781. Savannah remained in the enemy's hands nine months, and 
Charleston fourteen months after that event ; but the war, in effect, 
terminated then, North and South. The Waxhaw people who sur- 
vived returned to their homes, and resumed the avocations which 
the war had interrupted. 

The first event of any importance in young Jackson's life, after 
peace was restored to his neighborhood, was a quarrel. He was 
living, then, at the house of Major Thomas Crawford, where, also, 
one Captain Galbraith had his quarters, a commissary of the Amer- 
ican army. Galbraith having taken dire offense at Andrew for some 
cause unknown, threatened to chastise him, upon which the lad told 
the irate officer that, before lifting his hand, to execute his threat, he 
had better prepare for eternity. Galbi'aith forbore to strike ; but 
such ill feeling existed between the two that, soon after, Andrew 
went to live at the house of Mr. Joseph "White, a relative of Mrs. 
Crawford, and a resident of the Waxhaw region. A son of this 
gentleman was a saddler. For atx months, while Andrew lived 
with the family, he worked in the saddler's shop as regularly as 



1782.] HE S-TUDIES LAW. 35, 

the stnte of his health permitted. A low fever, similur to the fever 
and ague, hung about hira long after his recovery from the small- 
pox, and kept him weak and dispirited. His short experience 
as a saddler's boy seems to have given him a predilection for 
that trade; at least he apprenticed a protege to it forty years 
aftfer. 

With returning health returned the frolicsome spirit of the youth, 
which now began to seek gratification in modes less innocent than 
the sportive feats of his school-boy days. Several Charleston fami- 
lies, of wealth and social eminence, were living in the neighborhood, 
waiting for the evacuation of their city. With the young men of 
these families Jackson became acquainted, and led a life with them, 
in the summer and autumn of 1782, that was more merry than 
wise. He was betrayed by their example and his own pride into 
habits of expense, which wasted his small resources. That passion 
for horses, which never left him, began to show itself. He ran 
races and rode races, gambled a little, drank a little, fought cocks 
occasionally, and comported himself in the style usually affected by 
dissipated young fools of that day. His aunts and uncles, no doubt, 
shook their heads and predicted that Andy would come to no good 
Avith his fine friends ; and perhaps they said as much to the youth, 
and said it too often, or in the wrong way, for Andrew seems not 
to have warmly loved his Carolina relations. He struck down no 
roots into the soil of his birth, and never revisited it nor held much 
communication with its inhabitants after he left it. But he left it 
young, and vast regions of wilderness stretched between him and 
his native State. He/eli that he had no living kindred, and said •so 
at a time wlien he had many cousins and second cousins living in 
North and South CaroUna. I suppose there was little sympathy be- 
tween this wild, irascible, aspiring youth and his staid, orderly 
elders. He was probably regarded as the scapegrace of the family. 

In December, 1782, to the joy and exultation of all the southern 
country,- Charleston was evacuated, and its scattered whig families 
Avere free to return to their homes. Andrew, finding the country 
dull after the departure of his gay companions, suddenly resolved 
to follow them to the city. He mounted his horse, a fine and valu- 
able animal that he had contrived to possess, and rode to Charles- 
ton through the wildei'ness. There, it appears, he remained long 
enough to expend his slender stock of money and run up a long bill 



^6 L I F K O F A N D R E AV J.A C K S O N . [l 782. 

Avitli ]iis landlord. He was saved from total ruin by a curious inci- 
dent, which is thus related by one who heard it from himself: *'He 
had strolled one evening down the street, and was carried into a 
place Avhere some persons were amusing themselves at a game of 
dice, and much betting was in j)rogress. He was challenged for a 
game by a person present, by whom a proposal was made to state 
two hundred dollars against a fine horse on which Jackson had 
come to Charleston. After some deliberation, he accepted the 
challenge. Fortune was on his side; the wager was won and paid. 
He forthwith departed, settled his bill next morning, and returned 
to his home. ' My calculation,' said he, speaking of this little inci- 
dent, ' was that, if a loser in the game, I would give the landlord 
my saddle and bridle, as far as they Avould go toward the payment 
of las bill, ask a credit for tlie balance, and walk away from the 
city : but being successful, I had new spirits infused into me, left the 
table, and from that moment to the present time I have never 
thrown dice for a wager.'" 

His solitary ride home through the woods, after this narrow 
escape, gave him an opportunity for reflection, which be improved. 
He came to the conclusion that he had passed the year 1782 very 
foolishly, and that if ho meant to achieve, or be any thing in this 
world, he must alter his way of life. In some degree he did so ; 
not that he eschewed sport, or even gambling, as has been alleged. 
He was a keen lover of sport for many and many a year after this 
Charleston adventure ; and some of the sports then in vogue, and 
in which he delighted, were such as are shocking to the better feel- 
ings of this generation. Cock-fighting, for example. 

Upon the return of the young man to the home of his childhood, 
he evidently took hold of life more earnestly than he had done be- 
fore. He made some attempts, it is said, to continue his studies. 
Three entirely credible infoi-mants testify that Andrew Jackson 
was a schoolmaster at this period of his life. One of these infor- 
mants is Mr. John Porter, aged seventy-seven, still living near the 
birth-place of General Jackson; " a man so strictly honest," says Gen- 
eral S. H. Walkup, " that any statement he may make will be cer- 
tainly correct." Nothing is more certain than that. part of the small 
cash capital upon which Andrew Jackson started in his career, was 
earned, amid the hum and bustle of an old-field school. It is 1he 
more certain, as the uniform tradition of the Waxhaw country is, 



1784.] HE STUDIES LAW. 37 

tliat he was a very poor young man, who inherited nothing frosu 
his father, because his father hjid nothing to leave. The old people 
there scout the idea of " old man Andrew" having owned the land 
on which he lived. The tradition at Charlotte is, that when young 
Andrew attended Queen's College, on the hill where the gold grew, 
he often passed along down the street to school, with his trowsers 
t^o ragged to keep his shirt from flying in the wind. 

The fact of his possessing a horse worth two hundred dollars 
seems, at first, irreconcilable with these traditions of his poverty. 
At the North it would be so ; but not at the South. No boy in 
the rural parts of the South, with so many uncles around hun as 
young Jackson had, could get far on toward manhood witliout re- 
ceiving the gift of a colt. At the South a man without a horse is 
only less unfortunate than a man without legs. Every youth of 
respectable connections has one, as a matter of course. Thus we 
find Hugh Jackson, though without property, mounting his own 
horse to go with Colonel Davie's troop to the war. Robert, too, 
was mounted, as well as Andrew, as soon as the boys were old 
enough to serve in the field. The South may be defined as the 
region where every thing is a long icay off ; where you go five 
miles to see your next-door neighbor, seven miles to church, fifteen 
miles to a store, thirty miles to court, a three days' journey to mar- 
ket. What can a man do in such a country with no legs but his 
own ? . " 

For a year certainly, and, probably, for two years, after Andrew's 
return from Charleston, he remained in the Waxhaw country, em- 
ployed either in teaching school, or in some less worthy occupation. 
Peace was formally proclaimed in April, 1783. 

Some time between the proclamation of peace and the winter of 
1784-5, Andrew Jackson resolved xipon studying law. In that 
winter he gathered together his earnings and whatever property he 
may have possessed, mounted his horse again, and set his face north- 
ward in quest of a master in the law under whom to pursue his 
studies. 

He rode to Salisbury, North Carolina, a distance of seventy-five 
miles from the Waxhaws. Either because he met no encourage- 
ment at that place, or for some othei' reason beyond our guess, he 
then journeyed sixty miles westward, to Morganton, Burke county, 
North Carolina, where Hved Colonel Waightstill Avery, a famous 



'38 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [l784. 

lawyer of that day, and the ownei- of the best law library in that 
part of the country. He applied to Colonel Avery for instruction, 
and for board in his house. It was a new and wild region of 
country, and the house of Colonel Avery, like all others in the 
vicinity, was a log-house of the usual limited size. He was, there- 
fore, much against his will, compelled to decline receiving the appli- 
cant into his house ; and as there Avas no other boarding-place to be 
found in the neighborhood, the young man had no choice but to 
return to Salisbury,* 

At Salisbury he entered the law office of Mr, Spruce McCay, an 
eminent lawyer at that time, and, in later days, a judge of high 
distinction, who is still remembered with honor in North Carohna. 

Andrew was not quite eighteen years of age when he found him- 
self installed as a student of law. He thus had the start of most 
of the distinguished men with whom, and against whom, he after- 
ward acted. Henry Clay was then a fatherless boy of seven, living 
with his mother in the Slashes of Hanover county, Virginia. Daniel 
Webster was toddling about his father's farm in New Hampshire, 
a sickly child of four. Calhoun was an infant not two years old at 
his father's farm-house in South Carolina. John Quincy Adams 
was a young man of seventeen, about returning home from Europe 
to enter Harvard College, Martin Van Buren, a child two years 
old, might have been seen, on fine clays, playing on the steps of his 
father's tavern in Kinderhook. Crawford — once so famoiis, now 
reduced to twelve lines in a biographical dictionary — -was a Georgia 
school-boy of twelve. Aaron Burr was just getting into full practice 
as a New York lawyer, amiable, happy, fortunate, the future all 
bright before him. Benton, Biddle, Taney, Cass, Buchanan, Blair, 
Kendall, Lewis, Woodbury, Eaton and the rest, were not born. 

Salisbury, the capital of Rowan county, is a pleasant old town 
in the midst of that undulating, red-clayed region of North Carolina, 
the products of which are wheat, cotton, turpentine and gold, as 
well as the worst roads and the most obliging people in the world. 
It was an old town, for America, Avhen the Revolution began. The 



* These facts T learn from Colonel Isaac T. Avery, of Burke county, North Caro- 
hna, a son of the Colonel Avery to whom Jackson applied on this occasion. The 
present Colonel Avery lives on or near the site 0' the log-house wherein his father 
lived when young Jackson rode \ip to his gatp "u the winter of 1784. 



1 785.] H E S T U D I E S L A W , 39 

public wells, in the middle of the streets, have not yet been provi- 
ded with pumps, but exhibit the sheds, wheels, and buckets of 
generations past, and there is one, near the tavern where Jackson 
used to live, so extremely ancient in appearance that he may have 
stopped at. it on his way home from " the office " to quench his 
thirst. 

In one of the back streets of this old town, on the lawn in front 
of one of its largest and handsomest ihansions, close to the street 
and to the I'eft of the gate, stands a little box of a house fifteen feet 
by sixteen, and one story high. It is built of shingles, several*of 
which have decayed and fallen off. It is too small for a wood-shed 
or a corn-crib, and is in the wrong place for a hen-house or a negro 
cabin ; so that, if a stranger's eye should chance to be arrested by 
so insignificant an object, he would be puzzled to decide its pur- 
pose. If he should push open the door, he would be still more at 
a loss. The inside walls are ceiled. There are remains of old 
wainscoting on one side. Some stout, dai'k-green shelving remains. 
'The floor is littered and heaped high, and the fireplace is filled, 
and the shelves covered with old moldy books, pamphlets. Con- 
gressional documents (full of Jackson), speeches franked by the au- 
thors thereof, old letters and law papers, Philadelphia magazines 
of forty years ago, odd volimies of poetry, and other relics of a busy, 
cultivated life long past. 

This little decaying house of shingles was the law-office of Spruce 
McCay, when Andrew Jackson studied law under him at Salisbury, 
in lYSS and 1786. The jnansion behind it stands on the site of the 
house in which Mr. McCay lived at the time, and the property is 
still owned ana occupied by a near connection of his, who has pre- 
served the old office from regard to his. memorj. In that office, 
along with two fellow-students, McNairy and Crawford, Andrew 
Jackson studied lav/, copied papers, and did whatever else fell to 
the lot of law students at that day, for nearly two years. In one 
of the main streets of the town, a few yards from the office, still 
stands the Rowan House, the tavern in which the three students 
boarded and caroused — a rambling old place, composed of many 
buildings, after the southern fashion, with vast fireplaces, high 
mantels, and curious, low, unceiled rooms. The landlord shows a 
little apartment which young Jackson is said to have occupied ; 
and it may have been that one, as well as another. But there is 



40 L I F E O F A N D R E W J A C K S O N . [ll85. 

no doubt that the huge and lofty fireplace in the office of the hotel, 
is the fireplace round which these three merry young blades often 
quaffed their landlord's punch, and tossed up to decide who should 
pay for it. 

Salisbury teems with traditions respecting the residence there. of 
Andrew Jackson as a student of law. Their general tenor may be 
expressed in the language of the first old resident of the town, to 
whom I applied for information : " Andrew Jackson was the most 
roaring, rollicking, game-cocking, horse-racing, card-playing, mis- 
chievous felloAV that ever lived in Salisbury." Add to this such 
expressions as these : " He did not trouble the law-books much ;" 
" he was more in the stable than in the ofiice ;" " he was the head 
of all the rowdies hereabouts." That is the substance of what the 
Salisbury of 1859 has to say of the Andrew Jackson of 1785. 

Nothing is more likely than that he loas a roaring, rollicking fel- 
low, overflowing with life and spirits, and rejoicing to engage in 
all the fun that was going ; but I do not believe that he neglected 
his duties at the office to the extent to which Salisbury says he did. 
There are good reasons for doubting it. At no part of Jackson's 
career, when we can get a look at him through a pair of trust- 
worthy eyes, do we find him trifling with life. We find him often 
wrong, but always earnest. He never so much as raised a field of 
cotton which he did not have done in the best manner known to 
him. It was not in the nature of this young man to take a great 
deal of trouble to get a chance to study law, and then entirely to 
throw away that chance. Of course he naver became, in any 
proper sense of the word, a lawyer; but that he was not diligent 
and eager in picking up the little legal knowledge- necessary for 
practice at that day, will become less credible to the reader the 
more he knows of him. Once, in the White House, forty-five years 
after this period, when some one from Salisbury reminded him 
of his residence in that town, he said, with a smile, and a look of 
retrospection on his aged face : " Yes, I hved at old Sahsbury. I 
was but a raw lad then, but I did my best." 

Among the most respectable ladies in Salisbury, are the Misses 

, whose ancestors were old residents of the tOAvn when Lord 

CornwalUs had his quarters near their father's' house. Their par- 
ents, aunts and uncles were living in the town when Jackson lived 
there. One of their uncles, George Dunn by name, was in Jack- 



1 785.] H E S T U D I E S L A W . 41 

son's own roystei-ing set, and afterward went with him to Tennes- 
see, and Hved long in his family. These ladies, therefore, are well 
informed respecting the life of Jackson in their native town ; and 
the more so, as their mother was much in the habit of talking of 
him in their heaving after he became famous. They fully confirm 
the current tradition of the town with regard to the young stu- 
dent's sportive habits. He played cards, fought cocks, ran horses, 
threw the "long bullet" (cannon-ball, slung in a strap, and thrown 
as a trial of strength), carried ofi" gates, moved out-houses to remote 
fields, and occasional!)^ indulged in a doAvnright drunken debauch. 

Foot-races were much in vogue at that time — a sport in which 
the long-limbed Jackson was formed to excel. Among the runners 
was one Hugh Montgomery, a man of some note in revolutionary 
annals, who was as remarkable for strength and bulk as Jackson 
was for agility. To equalize the two in a foot-race, Montgomery 
once proposed to run a quarter of a mile on these conditions : 
Montgomery to carry a man on his back, Jackson to giye Montgo- 
mery a start of half the distance. Jackson accepted the challenge, 
and the absurd race was run amid the frantic laughter of half the 
town ; Jackson winning by two or three yards. All came into the 
winning-post in good condition, except the man whom Montgomery 
had carried. In his eagerness to win, Montgomery had clutched 
and shaken him with such violence, that the man was more damaged 
and breathless than either of the two competitors. 

One other Salisbury story, from the same most trustworthy 
source : Once upon a time, the three law-students and their friends 
celebrated some event, now forgotten, by a banquet at the tavern. 
The evening passed oif most hilariously. Toward midnight, it was 
agreed that glasses and decanters which had witnessed and promoted 
the happiness of such an evening, ought never to be profaned to 
any baser use. They were smashed accordingly. And if the glasses, 
why not the table ? The table was broken to splinters. Then the 
chairs were destroyed, and every other article of furniture. There 
was a bed in the room, and the destroying spirit being still unsatia- 
ted, the clothes and curtains were seized and torn into ribbons. 
Lastly, the combustible part of the fragments was heaped upon 
the fire and consumed. Wild doings these. Most yomig men have 
taken part in some such madness once ; only, it is not generally 
mentioned in their biographies. 



42 L I F E O F A N D R E W J A e K S O N . [l 786. 

A leaf of the Rowan House book, on which tlie landlord kept his 
account with Jackson, is said to be still in existence, but not visible 
to moi'tal eye. Those who profess to have seen the leaf, describe it 
to have contained three kinds of entries : first, the regular charges 
for board; secondly, charges for pints, quarts, and gallons of whisky; 
thirdly, an account, jMir contra^ in which the landlord acknowledges 
his indebtedness to Jackson for certain sums won by the latter at 
cards, or by betting upon races. 

But enough of this. From these traditions and stories we learif 
merely that, when Jackson studied law at Salisbury, he was exceed- 
ingly fond of the sports of the time, and indulged in them, perhaps, 
to excess. Salisbury, at that period, was noted for the gayety of 
its inhabitants, and continued to be until about thirty years agO' 
The old race-course, upon which young Jackson so often ran his 
horses and ran himself, where he beat the huge Hugh Montgomery 
with a man on his back, and where he enjoyed the hafjpiest days of 
the happie^ part of his youth, is now grown over with wood and 
almost forgotten. The young men lounge on the street corners, 
silently consuming their energies with their tobacco, waiting for the 
time to come when the honest old games shall return freed from the 
vices which drove them into disgraceful exile. The good people of 
Salisbury think their town is more moral now than it was in young 
Jackson's day. It is certainly more quiet. 

Our student completed his preparation for the bar in the office of 
Colonel John Stokes, a brave soldier of the Revolution, and after- 
ward a lawyer of high repute, from whom Stokes county, North 
Carolina, took its name. Colonel Stokes was one of those Avho fell 
covered with wounds, at the Waxhaw massacre in 1780, and may 
have been nursed m the old meeting-house by Mrs. Jackson and 
her sons. 

Before the spring of 1787, about two years after beginning the 
study of the law, Andrew Jackson was hcensed to practice in the 
courts of North Carolina. 

He was twenty years of age when he completed the preliminary 
part of his education at Salisbury. He had grown to be a tall fellow. 
He stood six feet and an inch in his stockings. He was remarkably 
slender for that robust age of the world, but he was also remarkably 
erect ; so that his form had the effect of symmetry without being 
symmetrical. His movements and carriage were singularly graceful 



1787.] • HESTUDIESLAW. 43 

and dignified. In the accomplishments of his d:jy and sphere he 
excelled the young men of his own circle, and was regarded by them 
as their chief and model. He was. an exquisite horseman, as all will 
agree who ever saw him on horseback. Jefferson tells us that Gene- 
ral Washington was the best horseman of his time, but he could 
scarcely have been a more graceful, or a more daring rider than Jack- 
son. Young Jackson loved a horse. From early boyhood to extreme 
old age he was the master and friend of horses. He was one of 
'those who must own a horse, if they do not a house, an acre or a 
coat. Horses may be expected to play a leading part in the career 
of this tall young barrister. 

Into the secrets of forest afid frontier life, Jackson was early 
initiated. He Avas used to camping out, and knew how to make it 
the most luxurious mode of passing a night known to man. He 
was a capital shot, and became a better one by and by. " George," 
his favorite servant in after years, used to point out the tree, in 
which he had often seen his master put two successive balls into 
the same hole. His bodily activity, as we have seen, was unusual. 
He was a young man, of a quick, brisk, springy step, with not a 
lazy bone in his body ; and though his constitution was not robust, 
it was tough and enduring beyond that of any. man of whom history 
gives account. 

He was far from handsome. His face was long, thin, and fair ; 
his forehead high and somewhat narrow; his hair, reddish-sandy in 
color, was exceedingly abundant, and fell down low ovCr his fore- 
head. The bristling hair of the ordinary portraits belongs to the 
latter half of his life. There was but one feature of his face that 
was not common-place — his eyes, which were of a deep blue, and 
capable of blazing with great expression when he was roused. 
Yet, as his form seemed fine without being so, so his face, owing 
to the quick, direct glance of the man, and his look of eager intel- 
Hgence, produced on others more than the effect of beauty. To 
hear the old people of Tennessee, imd particularly the ladies, talk 
of him, you would think he must have been an Apollo in form 
and feature. 

The truth is, this young man was gifted with that mysterious, 
omnipotent something, which we call a peesence. He Avas one of 
those who convey to strangers the impression that they are " some- 
bodv ;" who naturally, and without thinking of it, take the lead; 



44 LIFE OP ANDKEW JACKSON. [1787. 

Avho ave invited or permitted to take it as a matter of coiirse. It 
was said of him, that if he sliould join a party of travelers in the 
wilderness, and remain with them an hour, and the party should 
then be attacked by Indians, he would instinctively take the com- 
mand, and the company would, as instinctively, look to him for 
orders. 

This young lawyer, like most of those who had seen and felt 
what liberty had cost, was a very warm lover of his country. He 
remembered — how vividly he remembered ! — the scenes of the 
recent Revolution ; his mother's sad fate, and its cause ; the misery 
and needless death of his brother ; his own painful captivity : the 
Waxhaw massacre ; the ravaged homes of his relatives and neigh- 
bors ; Tarleton's unsparing onslaughts ; and all the wild and shock- 
ing ferocities of the war, as it was waged in the border counties of 
North Carolina. These things made the deepest imaginable im- 
pression upon his mind. He could scarcely place other citizens 
upon the same level, as the soldiers of the Revolution ; whom he 
regarded as a kind of republican aristocracy, entitled, before all 
others, to honor and office. At this age, and long after, he chei'- 
ished that intense antipathy to Great Britain which distinguished 
the survivors of the Revolution ; some traces of which could be 
discerned in the less enlightened jjarts of the country until within 
these few years. In these respects he was the most Aiuerican of 
Americans — an embodied Declaration-of-Independence — the Fourth- 
of-July inotirnate ! 

But we must not linger too long on the threshold. Our young 
friend has a very long and most eventful journey before him. The 
rest of his equipment is sufficiently known. From the schools he has 
derived little ; from the law-books not much ; from fortune nothing. 
He mounts; he is away. He leaves Salisbury possessing little 
beside the horse he rides, his lawyer's license, a law-book or two, 
youthful energies and youthful hopes. 

A year now goes by, in which he is nearly lost to view. He 
used to say* that, after being admitted to the bar, he lived awhile- 
at Martinsville, Guilford county, North Carolina, where two inti- 
mate friends of his, Henderson and Searcy, kept a store. That vil- 
lage has long ago disappeared ; there is but one old, uninhabited 
house now to be seen where it stood. There is a tradition in the 
State, that he accepted a constable's commission this year — an 



1788.J REMOVAL TO TENNESSEE. 45 

office of more consequence then than now. The strong probability 
is, tliat he assisted his friends in their store, and so gained an insight 
into the mystery of frontier store-keeping, which he afterward 
turned to account. 



CHAPTER V. 

REMOVAL TO TENNESSEE. 

Finding no opportunity to practice his profession in the old set- 
tlements, young Jackson resolved to join a large party of emigrants 
bovmd for that part of the western country which is now the State 
of Tennessee, but which was then Washington county, North Car- 
olina. John McNairy, a friend of Jackson's, had been appointed 
judge of the Superior Court for that vast region, and Jackson was 
invested with the office of solicitor, or public prosecutor, for the 
same district. This office was not in request, nor desirable. It 
was, in fact, difficult to get a suitable person to accept an appoint- 
ment of the kind, which was to be exercised in a wilderness live 
huri'dred miles distant from the populous parts of North Carolina, 
and where the office of prosecutor was sure to be unpopular, diffi- 
cult and dangerous. Thomas Searcy, another of Jackson's friends, 
received the appointment of clerk of the court. Three or four more 
of his young acquaintances, lawyers and others, resolved to go with 
him, and seek their fortune in the new and vaunted country of the 
West. The party rendezvoused at Morganton in the spring or early 
summer of 1788, mounted and equipped for a I'ide over the moun- 
tains to Jonesboro', tlien the chief settlement of East Tennessee, and 
the first halting-place of companies bound to the lands on the Cum- 
berland River. 

There was but one mode of traversing the wilderness. "A poor 
man," says Ramsey, " with seldom more than a single pack-horse, 
on which the wife and infant Avere carried, with a few clothes and 
bed-quilts, a skillet and a small sack of meal, was often seen wend- 
ing his way along the narrow mountain trace, with a rifle on his 



46 LIFK OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [1788. 

shoulder, tlie eldei- sons carrying an ax, a hoe, sometimes an auger 
and a saw, and the elder daughters leading or carrying the smaller 
children." Our cavalcade of judge, solicitor, clerk and lawyers, 
wended their way in double file along the same ^road, each riding 
his own horse; a pack-horse or two carrying the effects of the learn- 
ed judge. Every horseman had in his saddle-bags a small wallet, in 
which he carried letters from citizens in the old States to settlers in 
the new — a service most cheerfully and punctiliously performed in 
those days, Mr. Ramsey tells us. At night, of course, there was no 
choice but to camp out in the open air by the side of the path. 
Between Moi'ganton and Jonesboro' there were then no hostile In- 
dians, and the first stage of the journey was performed without dif- 
ficulty and without adventiire. Indeed, the trace between these 
towns had become a road, safe for wagons of a rough frontier con- 
struction. 

The judge and his party remained several weeks at Jonesboro', 
waiting for the assembling of a sufficient number of emigrants, and 
for the arrival of a guard from Nashville to escort them. ISTashville 
is one hundred and eighty-three miles from Jonesboro'. The road 
ran through a gap in the Cumberland mountains, and thence enter- 
ed a wilderness more dangerously infested with hostile Indians 
than any other portion of the western country— not even excepting 
the dark and bloody land of Kentucky. Of Jackson's journey 
through the wilderness on this occasion, but one authentic incident 
is now remembered ; which comes to me, in a direct line, by 
trustworthy channels, from the lips of Thomas Searcy, the clerk 
of the Superior Court, who rode by Jackson's side. 

It was a night scene. The company, nearly a hundred in 
number, among Avhom were women and cliildren, had just passed 
through what was considered the most dangerous part of the wil- 
derness. They had marched thirty-six hours, a night and two 
days, without halting longer than an hour ; the object being to 
reach a certain point, which Avas thought to be safe camping- 
ground. The place was reached soon after dark, and the tired 
travelers hastened to encamp. 

Earlier in the evening than usual, the exhausted women and 
childi'en of tlie party crept into their little tents and went to sleep. 
The men, except those Avho were to stand sentinel the first half of 
the night, wrapped their blankets round them, and lay down 



1788.] REMOVAL TO TENNESSEE. 47 

under the lee of sheltering logs, with their feet toward the fire. 
Silence fell upon the camp. All slept save the sentinel?, and one 
of the party who was not inclined to sleep, tired as he was, Andrew 
Jackson by name. This young gentleman sat on the ground, with 
his back against a tree, smoking a corn-cob pipe, for an hour after 
his companions had sunk into sleep; whether because he enjoyed his 
pipe or suspected danger, tradition saith not. About ten o'clock, 
as he was beginning to doze, he fell to observing the various notes 
of the owls that were hooting in the forest round him. A remark, 
able country this for owls, he thought, as hie was falling asleep. 
Just then, an owl that he had heard at a considerable distance, 
startled him by setting up a louder hoot than usual nearer the 
camp. Something peculiar in the note struck his attention. In an 
instant he was the widest awake man in Tennessee. All his mind 
was in his ears, and his ears were intent oil the hooting of the owls. 
He grasj^ed his rifle, and crept cautiously to Avhere his friend 
Searcy was sleeping, and w^oke him. 

" Searcy," said Jackson, " raise your head and make no noise." 

" What's the matter ?" asked Searcy. 

"The owls — listen — there — there again. Isn't that a little too 
natural ?" 

" Do you think so ?" asked Searcy. 

" I knoAV it," replied Jackson. " There are Indians all around 
us. I have heard them in every direction. They mean to attack 
before daybreak." 

The more experienced woodsmen were roused, and confirmed 
the young lawyer's surmise. Jackson advised that the camp be 
instantly but quietly broken up, and the march resumed. His 
advice was adopted, and the company neither heard nor saw any 
further signs of the pi-esence of an enemy durhig the remainder of 
the night. A party of hunters, who reached their camping ground 
an hour after it had been abandoned, lay down by their fires and slept. 
Before the day dawned, the Indians were upon them, and killed 
all but one of the party. Near tlie same spot, in the following 
sirring, when Judge McNairy was returning to Jonesboro', and had 
no Jackson in his retinue, his party was surprised in the night 
by Indians, and narrowly escaped destruction. One Avhite inan 
was killed, besides one friendly chief and his son. The judge and 
his companions were put to total rout, fled, swam the river upon 



48 LIFE OF ANDREW, JACKSON. [1788. 

Avhich they had encamped, :uid left tlieir horses, camp equipage, 
and clothing in the hands of the savages. 

Before the end of October, 1788, the long train of emigrants, 
among whom was Mr. SoUcitor Jackson, reached Nashville, to the 
great joy of the settlers there, to whom the annual arrival of such a 
train was all that an arrival can be — a thrilling event, news from 
home, reunion with friends, increase of wealth, additional pro- 
tection against a foe powerful and resolute to destroy. Ramsey 
says : " The new comer, on his arri\'al in the settlements, was 
everywhere and at all times greeted with a cordial welcome. 
Was he without a family? He was at once taken in as a cropper 
or a farming hand, and foui^d a home in the kind family of some 
settler. Had he a wife and children ? They were asked, in back- 
woods phrase, ' to camp with us till the neighbors can put \\p 
a cabin for you.' " 

Great news reached Nashville by this train ; news thnt all was 
right with the new national constitution, a majority of the states 
having accepted it ; news that the legislatures of tht; states were 
about choosing presidential electors, Avho would undoubtedly elect 
General Washington the first president of the republic. Washing- 
ton was inaugurated in the April following the arrival of Jackson 
at his new home. 

There is no region better adapted to the pui'poses of man than 
that of which Nashville is the center and capital. A gently undu- 
lating and most fertile country ; a land of hard wood, with the 
beautiful river Cumberland Avinding through the midst thereof. It 
happens that the country which is best for the civilized man is best 
for the savage also. The valley of the Cumberland was a hunting- 
ground so keenly coveted by surrounding tribes that the race which 
originally held it, worn out by the incessant wars, abandoned it in 
despair; so that when French M. Charlville, in 1714, established 
liimself on the site of Nashville, he found the country almost de- 
populated, and, consequently, abounding in the wild beasts whose 
skins he came to trap and trade for. In an o]d deserted Shawnee 
f6rt on the rocky bluffs of the Cumberland, M. Charlville and his 
French trappers stoi'ed their goods and furs. 

yhe Frenchmen, it seems, trapped and traded in peace for many 
years ; Indian instinct not discerning in the)n the possible subduers 
and masters of the counfry. Boone passed westward in 1769. A 



1788.] REMOVAL TO TE^S-NESSEE. 49 

party of nine or ten hunters penetrated the Cumberland wilderness 
in 1171, but remained not. In 17V9 a little company of pioneers, 
nine in number, headed by Captain James Robertson, pitched their 
camp upon the site of Charlville's abandoned settlement, with the 
design of settling there. Not another white man within a liundred 
miies. No effective succor nearer than three hundred. Twenty 
thousand Indians, the* most warlike and intelligent of their race, 
within a week's run. 

Captain James Robertson left the " settlements" about Jones - 
boro' with the understanding that his friend, Colonel John Douel- 
sou, a brave and wealthy old Virginia surveyor, was at once to 
follow him to the banks of the Cumberland with a party of emi- 
grants. Robertson and his j^arty were only pioneers, who were- 
to build huts and plant corn against the arrival of the main body 
under Donelson, Robertson's party consisted of men ; Donelson's 
of families, amOng whom was the family of Robertson himself. To 
avoid the toil and peril of the route throiigh the wilderness, then 
little known and unbroken, Colonel Donelson conceived the idea of 
attempting to reach the new settlement by water ; down the river 
Holston to the Tennessee, down the Tennessee to the Ohio, up the 
Ohio to the Cumberland, up the Cumberland to Captain Robertson 
and a New Home. The whole distance was considerably more 
than two thousand miles. No man, white or red, had ever at- 
tempted the voyage. The greater part of the route was infested 
by Indians. The project, in short, was worthy, for its boldness, of 
the destined father-in-law of General Jackson. Among those who 
shared the dangers of this voyage was Rachel Donelson, the lead- 
er's daughter, a black-eyed, black-haired brunette, as gay, bold and 
handsome a lass as ever danced on the deck of a flat boat, or took 
the helm while her father took a shot at the Indians. We shall 
meet this young lady often in the course of our narrative. 

The voyage lasted four months. Colonel Donelson kept a jour- 
nal, in which he entered whatever occurred that was unusual, but 
with such brevity, that the history of that long voyage, as written 
by Donelson, could be jDrinted on six of these pages. The manu- 
script is still preserved in* the family of one of his grandchildren, 
entitled, "Journal of a Voyage, intended by God's Permission, in 
the good boat Adventure, from Patrick Henry on Holston river to the 
French Salt Springs on Cumberland riser; kept by John Donaldson." 
8 



50 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1788. 

Starting in the depth of a winter long remembered for its severity, 
the " good boat" was often delayed hy the fall of Avater and " most 
excessive hard frost ;" so that two months passed before it began to 
make good progress. Joined by other boats in the spring, the 
Adventure floated down the winding, rippling, beautiful Tennessee, 
in company Avith a considerable fleet, bound for the lower country. 
Many and dire were the mishaps that befell them. Sometimes a 
boat would run upon a shoal, and remain immovable till its entire 
contents were landed. Sometimes a boat was whirled around a 
bend and dashed against a projecting point, and sunk. Once a' 
young man Avent hunting, and did not return. They fired their 
four-pounder and searched the Avoods, but in vain. The fleet sailed 
away, but the old father of the lost hunter stayed behind, alone 
in the Avilderness, to continue the search. Both were rescued at 
length. One man died of his frozen limbs. Tavo children Avere 
born. On board one boat, containing tAventy-eight persons, the 
small-pox Avas raging, and it Avas agreed that this boat should al- 
ways sail a certain distance behind the rest, but Avithin hearing of 
a horn. The Avily Indians pounced upon the infected boat, killed 
the fighting men, took prisoners thewomen and children, carried ofi" 
the contents of the boat into the woods, and nothing further was 
seen of either. "Their cries Avere distinctly heard," says the jour- 
nal, " by those boats in the rear ;" and it was a great grief to the 
whole company, " uncertain hoAV soon they might share the same 
fate." The Lidians caught the small-pox, of Avhich hundreds died 
before the disease had spent its force. 

The leader of the expedition made the last entry into his journal 
on the 24th of April, 1780 : "This day Ave arrived at our journey's 
end at the Big Salt Lick, where Ave have the pleasure of finding 
Captain Robertson and his company. It is a source of satisfaction 
to us to be enabled to restore to him and others their families and 
friends who were intrusted to our care, and Avho. sometime since, 
perhaps, despaired of ever meeting again. Though our prospects 
at present are dreary, Ave have found a few log-cabins, Avhich have 
been built on a cedar bluff above the Lick, by Captain Robertson 
and his company." 

And so the colony was planted. This Avas but eight years before 
the arrival of Judge McNairy and his party of young lawyers. 
During the whole of that period, the settlers had to battle for exist- 



1788.] REMOVAL TO T E N Jf E S S E E . 51 

ence. The first spring they nearly starved ; for the extraordinary 
winter had exhausted the corn and thinned the game. In " the 
settlements," that is, in East Tennessee and Kentucky, corn sold 
that season at one hundred and sixty-five dollars per hushel. The 
Indians always hovering round, made it dangerous to go a hundred 
yards from the station. Never were a people so beset. "While 
some planted corn, others had to watch against the skulking foe. 
When the girls went blackberrying, a guard invariably turned out 
to escort them, and stand guard over the surrounding thickets. 
Nay, if a man went to a spring to drink, another stood on the 
watch with his rifle cocked and poised. "Whenever four or five 
men, says the annalist of Tennessee, were assembled at a spring or 
elsewhere, they held their guns in their hands, and stood, not face 
to face, as they conversed, but w^ith their backs turned to each 
other, all facing different ways, watching for a lurking or a creeping 
Indian. 

"With all their precautions, not a month passed in which some 
one did not fall before the rifle of the sleepless enemy. It w^as a 
wonder the little band was not driven away or exterminated. On 
one occasion, indeed, it required all of Captain Robertson's influ- 
ence and eloquence to induce the settlers not to abandon the spot, 
as its old proprietors, the Shawnees, had done before them, and, 
more recently, the bands of traders and trappers under Charlville, 
There were times, when even Robertson and his friends might have 
fled, if to fly had not been more perilous than to stay. 

The settlement grew ajjace, however. "When Jackson arrived, in 
1788, the stations along the' Cumberland may have contained five 
thousand souls or more. But the place was still an outpost of civ- 
ilization, and so exposed to Indian hostility, that it was not safe to 
live five miles from the central stockade — a circumstance that in- 
fluenced the whole career and life of our young friend, the newly- 
arrived solicitor ; for whom let us delay no longer to find lodgings. 

Colonel John Donelson took root in the country and flourished 
greatly. Lands, negroes, cattle, horses, whatever was -wealth in 
the settlement, he had in greater abundance than any other man. 
They point out still, near Nashville, the field he first tilled, and the 
spot where he made his wonderful escape from the Indians ; a 
story I had the pleasure of hearing one of his grandsons tell, but 
have not the space here to repeat. During one of the long winters, 



52 LIFE OF ANDREW JACK PON. [1788. 

wlien an unexpected influx of emigrants had reduced the stock of 
corn alarmingly Ioav, Colonel Donelson mercifully moved off, with 
all his corn-consuming host, to Kentucky, and there lived until the 
season of plenty returned. During this residence in Kentucky, 
his daughter Rachel gave hei' heart and hand to Lewis Robards, 
and the brave old man returned to the Cumbeidand without her. 

Many were the adventures and the exploits of this sturdy pioneer, 
— this hero, who never suspected that he was a hero. Yet after so 
many hair-breadth escapes, by flood and field, his time came at last. 
He was in the woods surveying, far from home. Two young men 
who had been with him came along and found him near a creek, 
pierced by bullets ; whether the bullets of the lurking savage or 
the white robber was never known. It was only known that he 
met a violent death from some ambushed, cowardly villains, Avhite 
or red ; his daughter Rachel always thought the former. She 
thought no Lidians could kill her father, who knew their ways too 
well to be caught by them. 

When young Jackson arrived at the settlement, he found the 
widow Donelson living there in a block-house, somewhat more 
commodious than any other dwelling in the place ; for she was a 
notable housekeeper, as well as a woman of property. With her 
then lived her daughter Rachel and her Kentucky husband, Lewis 
Robards. Robards had bought land five miles from the Lick, and 
was living with his mother-in-law until the Indians should be suffi- 
ciently subdued or pacified to render it safe to live so far from the 
settlement. Jackson, soon after his arrival, went also to live with 
Mrs. Donelson as a boarder — an arrangement no less satisfactory to 
her than to him. It was a piece of good fortune to her to have 
another man in her spare cabin as a jDrotector against the Indians ; 
while he had found the best boarding jjlace in the settlement — not 
the least pleasant feature of it being the presence of the gay and 
lively Mrs. Robards, the best story-teller, the best dancer, the 
siDrightliest companion, the most dashing horsewoman in the western 
country. 



1TS9.] JACKSOX PRACTICES LAW. fb 



CHAPTER VI. 

JACKSOJT PRACTICES LAW. 

The arrival of the young lawyer at Nashville was most opportune. 
Tlie only licensed lawyer in West Tennessee was engaged exclu- 
sively in the service of debtors, who, it seems, made common cause* 
against the common enemy, their creditors. Jackson came not as 
a laAvyer merely, but as the public prosecutor, and there was that in 
his bearing which gave assurance that he was the man to issue un- 
popular writs and give them effect. The merchants and others, who 
could not collect their debts, came to him for help. He undertook 
their business, and executed it with a promptitude that secured his 
career at the bar of Tennessee. ■ Before he had been a month in 
N"ashville, he had issued, it is said, seventy writs to delinquent 
debtors. He was the man wanted. And this was the first instance 
of a certain good fortune that attended him all through his ]jfe : he 
was continually finding himself placed in circumstances ealculated to 
call into conspicuous exercise the very qualities in which he excelled 
all mankind^ 

Such of the old c5urt records of West Tennessee as have escaped 
time, fire and vermin, contain just enough about Andrew Jackson 
to show that he jumped immediately into a large practice. It was 
customary then for a lawyer to attend every court held in the State. 
Two months after his arrival m the western country we find him 
attending court in Sumner county, near the Kentucky border, a day's 
ride from Nashville. The tattered records of Sumner county con- 
tain this entry: — "January 12th, 1789. Andrew Jackson, Esq., 
produced his hcense as an attorney-at-law in court, and took the oath 
required by law." Another entry from the same records is this : — 
" October 6th, 1790. Andrew Jackson, Esq., proved a bill of sale 
from Hugh McGary to Gaspar Mansker, for a .negro man, which 
was O. K." [A common western mistake for O. R., which means 
Ordered Recorded. Hence, perhaps, the saying " O. K."] 

The records of the quarter sessions court of Davidson county, the 
county of which Nashville is the capital, show, that at the AjDril 
term, 1790, there were one hundred and ninety-two cases on the two 
dockets (Appearance docket and Trial docket) ; and that Andrew 



5# LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1789. 

Jackson was employed as counsel in forty-two of them. On one 
leaf of the record of the January term, 1793, there are thirteen suits 
entered, mostly for debt, in every one of which Andrew Jackson 
was employed. At the April term of the same year, he was coun- 
sel in seventy-two out 'of one hundred and fifty-five cases. In most 
of these he was counsel for the defence. At the July term of the 
same year, he was employed in sixty cases out of one hundred and 
thirty-five; and at. the October term, in sixty-oije cases out of one 
hundred and thirty-two. In the four terras of ] 794, there were three 
hundred and ninety-seven cases before the same court, in two hundred 
and twenty-eight of which Jackson acted as counsel. And during 
these and later years, he practiced at the courts of Jouesboro', and 
other to's^ns in East Tennessee. 

What, with his extensive practice and his long journeys, lie was 
the busiest of men. Half his time, as I conjecture, must have been 
spent in traveling. During the first seven yeai's of his residence in 
Tennessee, he performed the journey through the mountain wilder- 
ness that lay between Jonesboro' and Nashville, a distance of nearly 
two hundrecj miles, twenty-two times ; and this at a time when a 
man was in peril of his life from the Indians at his own front door. 
He had rare adventures during those, long horseback rides from 
court-house to court-house — journeys tliat sometimes kept him camp- 
ing out in the woods twenty successive niglits. Tlie shorter jour- 
neys he occasionally performed alone, protected only by the keen- 
ness of his eye and ear, passing through I'egions where he dared 
not kill a deer or light a fii'e for fear the smoke or the report of his 
rifle should convey the knowledge of his presence to some hidden 
savage. The journeys, from the Cumberland to Jonesboro' and 
Knoxville, he often made in company with the guard that turned 
out to conduct parties of emigrants to the western settlements, and 
sometimes with a smaller party of lawyers and clients. 

One lonely night passed in the woods was very vividly remem- 
bered by him. He came, soon after dark, to a creek that had been 
swollen by the rains into a roaring torrent. The night was as dark 
«o pitch, and the rain fell heavily. To have attempted the ford 
would have been suicidal, nor di(^ he dare to light a fire, nor even 
let his horse move about to browse. So he took ofifthe saddle, and, 
placing it at the foot of a tree, sat uj^on it, wrai)ped in his blanket, 
and holding his rifle in one hand and his bridle in the other. All 



1789.] JACKSON PKACTICKS LAW. 55 

through the night he sat motionless and silent, listening to the noise 
of the flood and the pattering of the rain-drops upon the leaves. 
When the day dawned, he saddled his horse agani, mounted, swam 
the creek, and continued his journey. , . , 

Once as he was about to cross the-^vilderness, he reached the 
rendezvous too late, and found that his party had started. It was 
evenino-, and he had ridden hard, but there was no hope of catch- 
ino- uprunless he started immediately and traveled all night With 
a °ino-le guide he took the road, and came up to the camp-fires just 
befoi^e daylio-ht ; but his friends had already marched. Contmumg 
bis iourney,\e was startled, when daylight came, to discover the 
tracks of Indians in the road, who were evidently following the 
travelers Equally evident was it to the practiced eyes of these 
men of the woods, that the Indians outnumbered the whites. They 
pressed forward, and paused not till the tracks showed that the 
enemy were but a few minutes in advance of them. Then, the guide 
refusino- to proceed, Jackson divided the stock of provisions equa Jy 
with him, saw him take his way homeward, and kept on himself 
toward the Indians, resolved, at all hazards, to save or succor his 
friends At length he came to a place where the Indians had lelt 
the path, and taken to the woods, with the design, as Jackson 
thou-ht, of getting ahead of the white party, and lying m ambush 
for them. He pushed on with all speed, and reached his friends 
before dark, just after they had crossed a deep half-frozen river, 
and were drying their clothes by their camp-fires. He told his 
news. The march was instantly resumed. All that night and the 
next day they kept on their way, not daring to rest or halt, and 
reached, toward evening, the cabins of a company of l^^^ters, of 
whom they asked shelter for the night. The boon was churhshly 
.refused, and they marched on in the teeth of a driving storm of 
wind and snow. They ventured to encamp at length. Jackson, _ 
who had not closed his eyes for sixty hours, wrapped himself in 
his blanket, and slept soundly till daylight, when he awoke to find 
• himself buried in snow to the depth of six mches. Tlie party ot 
Indians, meanwhile, had pursued unrelentingly, until, reaching the 
huts of the inliospitable hunters, they murdered every man of them, 
and, satisfied with this exploit, left the travelers to complete their 

iourney unmolested. i -o i ,.<. 

History records that no less a person than General Robert- 



56 LITE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [l791. 

son, the wise and heroic founder of the Cumberland settlements, 
was attacked and Avounded, in his own fields, by the Indians. 
Jackson was one of the party Avho pursued the savages on that 
occasion into their fastnesses. With fourteen com})anions, he went 
ten miles into a trackless canebrake, fell upon the Indian camp at 
break of day, put tliem to flight without the loss of a man, and cap- 
tured their weapons. 

This it was to be a pioneer lawyer in Tennessee. 

Two years passed after Jackson's arrival at Nashville before any 
thing of great importance occurred to him. He performed his 
journeys, attended his courts, gained and lost his causes, grew in 
the esteem of his fellow-citizens, and struck down various and vig- 
orous roots into his adopted soil. 

In the year 1791, the prosperous young solicitor, after a court- 
ship of an extraordinary character, was married to Mrs. Rachel 
Robards, the daughter of that brave old pioneer, John Donelson. 
We haye already recorded that Andrew Jackson, upon reach- 
ing Nashville, took board with the widow of that heroic man, 
with whom, also, resided her daughter Rachel and her husband, 
Lewis Robards. Mr. Robards, a man of a jealous and quarrelsome 
disposition, had already been separated from his wife, had rejoined 
her, and was living unhapjiily with her, when the youthful Jackson 
came to reside with Mrs. Donelson. The attentions of the young 
lawyer to his wife, innocent and ordinary though they were, kin- 
dled the jealous anger of Robards to such a degree, that the Avhole 
family were rendered miserable by his violence and ill-temper. 
Terrible scenes occurred between the ill-matched paii", and between 
Robards and Jackson ; and, at length, to tlie great relief of the en- 
tire circle, Robards returned to his former home in Kentucky, 
leaving his wife with her mother. For some months she lived in 
peace. At length, a rumor reached Nashville that Robards was 
about to return, and take his wife to Kentucky. To avoid a 
calamity so much dreaded, she resolved to accompany a party that 
was preparing to descend the rivers to Natchez, and there to re- 
main until she was no longer in danger of molestation from her 
husband. To assist in protecthig her from the Indians, Jackson 
accompanied the party, and having seen her safe at Natchez, re- 
turned to his practice at Nashville. 

Soon after these events, Robards began proceedings for 



1791.] JACKSON PRACTICES L AAV, 51 

divorce, accusing his wife of the grossest infidelity, and implicat- 
ing Jackson in the crime ; and, ere long, the nevrs was brought to 
Nashville that he had actually obtained a divorce from the legis- 
lature of Virginia, a state of which Kentucky was then a part. 
Upon receiving this intelligence Jackson descended once more to 
Natchez, offered his hand to the injured woman, who accepted it, 
and they were married at Natchez by a priest of the CathoUc 
Church. Two years later, information was obtained that, aft the 
time of this marriage, the divorce claimed by Robards, had not 
been legally completed. It was not until Jackson and Mrs. Robards 
had been married two years, that the divorce was really granted 
in a Kentucky court. Upon ascertaining this, Jackson had the 
marriage ceremony performed a second time, by a Protestant 
clergyman in the neighborhood of Nashville. The reader need 
scarcely be reminded that, at that day, many months might pass 
without the inhabitants of a settlement, so remote as Nashville, re- 
ceiving news from the older towns, and that, in the absence of 
certain mtelligence, rumor is busy with all her thousand tongues. 

Extraordinary as were the circumstances in which this marriage 
was contracted, it proved to be one of the happiest. Husband 
and wife loved each other dearly, and continued to testify the love 
attd respect they entertained for one another by those polite atten- 
tions which lovers cannot but exchange before marriage and after 
mai'riage. Their love gr^ as their years increased, and became 
warmer as their blood became colder. No one ever heard either 
address to the other a disrespectful, an irritating, or unsympathiz- 
ing word. They were not as familiar as is. now the fashion. He 
remained " Mr. Jackson" to her always ; never " General ;" still 
less "Andrew." And he never called her " Rachel," but " Mrs. 
Jackson^" or " wife." The reader may become better acquainted 
with their domestic life by and by. Meanwhile, let it be under- 
stood, that our hero has now a Home, v/here lives a Friend, true 
and fond, to welcome liis return from wilderness courts ; to cheer 
his stay ; to lament his departure, yet give him a motive for going 
forth ; a Home wherein — whatever manner of man he might be 
elsewhere — he was always gentle, kind, and patient ! 

He was most prompt to defend his wife's good name. The j)ecu- 
liar circumstances attending his marriage made him touchy on this 
point. His temper, with regard to other causes of offense, was 



58 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1795. 

tinder ; with respect to this, it was gunpowder. His worst quarrels 
arose from tliis cause, or were greatly aggravated by it. lie 
became sore on the subject ; so that, at last, I think he could 
scarcely hate any one very heartily without fancying that the 
obnoxious person had said something, or caused something to be 
said, which reflected on the character of Mrs. Jackson. For the 
man who dared breathe her name except in honor, he kept pistols 
in perfect condition for thirty-seven years. 

The social standing of Jackson at Nashville was not, in the 
slightest degree, aflected unlavorably by liis marriage. One proof 
of it is this : in October of this very year he was elected one of the 
tn;stees of the Davidson Academy, a body composed of the first 
men and clergymen of the place. The original record of his election 
is still legible in the following terms : — 

"1791. October 8th. — Board met at Spring Hill. Adjourned to meet at Mr. 
Clarke's, in Nashville, at 10 o'clock, Monday, 10th inst. 

" Met accordingly. 

" Ordered, that Mr. Andrew Jackson be appointed a Trustee, in the room of Colonel 
William Polk, removed." 

As Tennessee prospered (and it prospered rapidly after the Indians 
were subdued, in 1794), the district attorney could not but prosiaiiw 
with it. He \\'as a prospering man by nature. The land records 
of 1794, 1795, 1796, and 1797, show tha#it was during those years 
that Jackson laid the foundation of the large estate which he sub- 
sequently acquired. Those were the days in which a lawyer's fee 
for conducting a suit of no great importance might be a square 
mile of land, or, in Avestern phrase, " a six-forty." The circulating 
medium of Europe, says some witty writer, is gold ; of Africa, 
men ; of Asia, women ; of America, land. Jackson appears fre- 
quently in the records of the years named as the purchaser and 
assignee of sections of land. He bought six hundred and fifty 
acres of the fine tract which afterward formed the Hermitage farm 
for eight hundred dollars — a high price for that day. By the time 
that Tennessee entered the Union, in 1796, Jackson was a very 
extensive land-owner, and a man of fair estate for a frontier's man. 

The ofiice of public prosecutor, held by Andrew Jackson during 
the first seven or eight years of his residence in Tennessee, was one 
that a man of only ordinary nerve and courage could not havo 



1 795.J J A C K S O N P R A C T I C E S L A W . 59 

filled. It set in array against him all the scoundrels in the territory. 
Thoi* were the times when a notorious criminal would defy the 
officers of justice, and keep them at bay for years at a time; when 
a district attorney wh# made himself too officious, Avas liable to a 
shot in the back as be rode to court ; when two men, not satisfied 
with the court's award, would come out of the court-house into the 
public square, and fight it out in the presence of the whole popula- 
tion, -judge and jury, perhaps, looking on; when the public prose- 
cutor was apt to be regarded as the man whose office it was to 
spoil good sport, and interfere between gentlemen. Jackson had 
his share of " personal difficulties," as rough-and-tumble fights are 
politely termed in that country to this day. One of these, which 
occurred when he was young in his office, I can relate in very 
nearly his own words. He told the story, one day, in the White 
House, to a very intimate friend, who expected to be assailed in 
the streets for his ardent support of the administration. 

"Now, Mr. Blair," said the general, "if any one attacks you, I 
know how you'll fight with that big stick of yours. You'll 
aim right for his head. Well, sir, ten chances to one he'll ward it 
ofi"; and if you do hit him, you won't bring him down. No, sir" 
(taking the stick into his own hands), "you hold the stick so, and 
punch him in the stomach, and you'll drop him. I'll tell you how 
I found that out. When I was a young man practicing law in 
Tennessee, there was a big bullying fellow that wanted to pick a 
quarrel with me, and so trod on my toes. Sujoposing it accidental, 
I said nothing. Soon after he did it again, and I began to suspect 
his object. In a few minutes he came by a third time, pushing 
against me violently, and evidently meaning fight. He was a man 
of immense size, one of the very biggest men I ever saw. As quick 
as a flash, I snatched a small rail from the top of the fence, and gave 
him the point of it full in the stomach. Sir, it doubled him up. He 
fell at my feet and I stamped on him. Soon he got up savage., 
and Avas about to fly at me like a tiger. The bystanders made as 
though they would interfere. Says I, ' Gentlemen, stand back, 
give me room, that's all I ask, and Pll manage him.' With that 
I stood ready Avith the rail pointed. He gave me one look, and 
turned away, a whipped man, sir, and feehng like one. So, sir, I 
sav to you, if any villain assaults you, give him the pint in his 
belly." 



60 LIFE OrANDEEWJACKSOX. [l795. 

The effect of such a victory in giving a man iniluence and status 
in a frontier country can be imagined. 

Another stick story is cm-rent in Tennessee. The ferry across 
the Cuniberland having been leased for the sum of one hundred 
dollars per annum, General Daniel Smith remarked, at a meeting of 
the trustees of the Academy : 

" Why, that is enough to pay the ferriage of all the trustees over 
the river Styx." 

" Sticks ?" replied Jackson. " I want but 07ie stick to make my 
way." 

O, those were wild times ! Jackson had not been long at the 
bar before he fought a duel. His antagonist was that Colonel 
Waightstill Avery, of Morgantown, North Carolina, to whom he 
had once applied for instruction in the law, and with whom lie after- 
ward practiced at the Jonesboro' court. The present Colonel 
Isaac T. Avery, of Morganton, is a son of that gentleman. Upon 
applying to him for information, I Avas gratified to receive, not 
only an account of the duel, but also some other anecdotes and 
reminiscences of great interest, throwing light upon our subject, 
where it needed light most. 

" In the trial of a suit one afternoon at Jonesboro," writes Colonel 
Avery, " General Jackson and my father were opposing counsel. 
The general always esjDoused the cause of his clients warmly, and 
seemed to make it his own. On this occasion, the cause was going 
against him, and he became irritable. My father rather exultingly 
ridiculed some legal position taken by Jackson ; using, as he after- 
ward admitted, language more sarcastic than was called for. It 
stung Jackson, who snatched up a pen, and on the blank leaf of a 
law-book wrote a peremptory challenge, which he delivered there 
and then. It was as promptly accepted. My father was no duel- 
ist ; in fact he was opposed to the principle, but with his antece- 
dents, in that age and country, to have declined would have been 
to have lost caste. The occurrence was not noticed or known in 
the court-house. They remained until the cause was put to jury, 
when my father went into the street to look for a friend. After 
some little time he found General John Adair, who consented to 
act. The arrangements occupied some further time, and when the 
parties met, in a hollow north of Jonesboro', it was after sundown. 
The ground was measured, and the parties were jDlaced. They 



1705.] JACKSON PBACTICES LAW. 61 

fired. Fortunately, neither was hit. General Jackson acknowl- 
edged himself satisfied. They shook hands, and were friendly ever 
after. 

" In my twelfth year I was taken to a grammar-school kept by 
the Rev. Mr. Doak, eight miles from Jon^boro'. My father per- 
mitted me to stay with him during those fifteen-day courts, and I 
saw much#f General Jackson then and subsequently. I will give you 
a characteristic incident which I witnessed, 

" I was at Jonesboro' court, at one time, when every house in the 
town was crowded. About twelve o^clock at night, a fire broke out 
in the stables of the principal hotel-keeper of the place. There was 
a large quantity of hay in the stables, whicli stood in dangerous 
proximity to the tavern, court-house, and business i^art of the town. 
The alarm filled the streets with lawyers, judges, ladies m their night- 
dresses, and a concourse of strangers and citizens. General Jackson 
no sooner entered the street than he assumed the command. It 
seemed to be conceded to him. He shouted for buckets, and formed 
two lines of men reaching from the ftre to a stream that ran through 
the town ; one line to pass the empty buckets to the stream, and the 
other to return them full to the fire. He ordered the roofs of the 
tavern and of the houses most exposed to be covered with wet 
blankets, and stationed men on the roofs to keep them wet. Amidst 
the shrieks of the women, and the frightful neighing of the burning 
hoi'ses, every order was distinctly heard and obeyed. In the hue 
up which the full buckets passed, the bank of the stream soon became 
► so slippery that it was difficult to stand. While General Jackson 
was strengthening that part of the- fine, a drunken coppersmith, 
named Boyd, who sAid he had seen fires at Baltimore, began to give 
orders and annoy persons in the line. 

" ' Fall into hue !' shouted the general. 

" The man continued jabbering. Jackson seized a bucket by the 
handle, knocked him down, and walked along the line giving his 
orders as coolly as before. He saved the toto?i /" 



62 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1796. 

CHAPTER VII. 

JACKSON IN CONGRESS. 

In ISTovembei-, 1V95, the governor of the territory jmnounced, 
as the result of a census ordered by the legislature, that Tennessee 
contained seventy-seven thousand two hundred and sixty-two 
inhabitants, of whom ten thousand six hundred and thirteen were 
slaves. He therefore called upon the people to elect delegates to 
a convention for making a constitution, and named January 11th, 
1796, as the day for their assembling at Knoxville. The con- 
vention met accordingly, fifty-five members in all, five from each 
of the eleve!! counties. The five members sent from Davidson 
county were John JMclSTairy, Andeew Jackson, James Robertson, 
Thomas Hardeman, and Joel Lewis. Thus we find our young 
adventurer, after seven years' residence in the territory, associated 
on equal terms, in a most honorable trust, with the judge of the 
Superior Court and with the fiither of the Cumberland settlements. 
To one of them, at least, he was superior in literary attainments ; 
for General Robertson was taught to read by his wife after his 
marriage. 

The convention met in a small building, which afterward served 
as a school-house, standing in the outskirts of the new town of 
Knoxville, surrounded by tall trees of the primeval wilderness. 

The building Avas fitted up for the reception of the important 
assembly at an expense of twelve dollars and sixty-two cents — ten 
dollars for seats, and^ the rest for " three and a half yards of 
oil cloth," for the covering of the table. But the early proceedings 
of the convention exhibited a still more remarkable example of 
economy. The legislature had fixed the compensation of the 
members at tAVO dollars and a half a day, but had forgotten to 
appropriate any compensation for the secretary, printer, and door- 
keeper. The convention, therefore, Avith curious .ind quaint disin- 
terestedness, resolved, that, inasmuch as " economy is an amiable 
trait in any government, and, in fixing the salaries of the officers 
thereof, the situation and resources of the country should bt) 
attended to," therefore^ one dollar and a half per diem is enough for 



1796.] JArKSON IN CON GUESS. 63 

us, and no more will any of us take, and the rest shall go t<'> the 
payment of the secretary, printer, doorkeeper, and other officers. 

The convention being- organized, it was voted that the " House 
proceed to appoint two members from each county to draft a con. 
stitution, and that each county name their members." The mem- 
bers from Davidson county selected Judge McNairy and Andrew 
Jackson to represent them in this committee. A constitution was 
soon drafted, and the whole business of the convention con- 
cluded in twenty-seven days. 

The state was promptly organized. A legislature was elected, 
and " Citizen John Sevier," we are officially informed, was chosen 
the first governor. On grounds purely technical, and for reasons 
chiefly political, the Federalists in Congress delayed the admission 
of republican Tennessee into the Union ; Rufus King, of Xew 
York, being a conspicuous opponent, and Aaron Burr a leading ad- 
vocate^f her immediate admission. But, on the 1st of June, 1796, 
all difficulties were adjusted, and Tennessee became the sixteenth 
member of the confederacy. William Blount and William Cooke 
were elected the first United States senators from the new State. 
Three presidential electors were chosen, who cast the vote of the 
State for Jefferson And Burr. As yet, Tennessee was entitled to 
but one member of the House of Representatives. Early in the 
fall of 1796, Andrew Jackson was elected by the people to serve them 
in that honorable capacity. Soon after — for the journey was a long 
one, and more difficult than long — he mounted his horse and set 
out for Philadelphia, distant nearly eight hundred miles. 

Tennessee, at that time, felt herself aggrieved by the general 
government, and was a claimant for redress. Great expenses had 
been incurred in sending troops against the Indians, which expen- 
ses, it was feared, the general government v\-ould object to reim- 
burse, on the ground that it had not authorized, but forbidden, any 
invasion of the Indian territory. There was also a dispute with 
the Cherokees upon the evei-lasting question of boundary, and the 
government inclined to side with the Indians, and actually did, 
after Jackson's departure, send troops to Knoxville, to support the 
Indians in their demands. Andrew Jackson, as I conjecture (in 
the absence of information), owed the honor of being the first rep- 
resentative of Tennessee in the House of Representatives, to his 
warm espousal of the claims of the State, and to the fact that 



64 LIFE Of" ANDREW JACKSON. [IVOO. 

he was supposed to be the very man to support those claims, with 
spirit and effect, on the floor of Congress. 

The member from Tennessee reached Philadelphia at one of 
those periods of commercial depression to wliich the country has 
always been liable. The financial reader is aware that the suspen- 
sion of specie payments by the Bank of England, which lasted 
twenty-two years, began in February, 1797, about two months 
after Jackson's arrival in Philadelphia. The depression in Phila- 
delphia was already severe, and the failures were numerous, though 
the great crash was still a year distant. In all times of public 
disaster, one of the first of public necessities is a scapegoat, and 
never so much as when the cause of the general distress is some- 
thing so simple, and, therefore, so i^uzzling, as paralysis of busi- 
ness. When the government has any thing to do with the pecuniary 
affairs of the nation — when the government is the proprietor or 
manager of the controlling bank, for example, then the government 
is invariably the scapegoat. It was so when Jackson, for the fii-st 
time, came in contact with the great world. He saw the general 
prostration of credit ; and when he sought to know the cause of 
this dire eflect, whether he sought it in conversation with Repub- 
lican members, or in the flaming and confident organs of his party, 
he heard and read but this : Haihilton — Paper Money — Over- 
issTJES — ISTational Bank ! 

On the third day of the session, a quorum of the senate having 
reached Philadelphia, and both houses being assembled in the 
representatii-tis' chamber, Jackson saw General AYashington, an 
august and venerable form, enter the chamber and deliver his last 
speech to Congress ; heard him recommend the gradual creation of 
a navy for the protection of American commerce in the Mediterra- 
nean against the pirates of Algiers ; heard him modestly-^almost 
timidly — suggest that American manufactures ought to be at least 
so far encouraged and aided by government as to render the country 
independent of foreign nations in time of war ; heard him recom- 
mend the establishment of boards of agriculture, a national univer- 
sity and a military acadeftiy ; heard him mildly object to the policy 
of paying low salaries to high ofiiccrs, to the e.xclusion from high 
office of all but men of fortune ; and heard him denounce the 
s2)oliatio7is of our commerce by cruisers sailing under the flag of 
the French repi(hlic. 

m 



1796.] JACKSOX I2f COKGEESS. 05 

At that clay, it was customary for each house to prepare, and in 
person deliver, a formal reply to the president's opening speech. 
It was in connection Avith the reply of the representatives to the 
president on this occasion, that the new member from Tennessee 
is said to have voted to censure General Washington ; a charge 
upon which all the changes were rung in the presidei\tial campaigns 
of 1824, 1828, and 1832. Let us see how much truth there was in 
the accusation. I use the words charge and accusation, because 
the vote referred to has always been viewed in that light ; as though 
it were not 7neritorious in a representative to censure a poj^ular 
hero if he honestly deemed his conduct censurable. 

An address was drawn up which concluded with a series of 
paragraphs highly eulogistic, not merely of the retiring president, 
but of his administration. The more radical democrats, of whom 
Jackson was one, objected, and, after two days' animated discus- 
sion, Edward Livingston brought the debate to an end, by dis- 
tinctly moving to strike out the words, " wise, firm, and patriotic 
adminislration •'''' and to insert in their place, " Your firmness, 
wisdom, and patriotism." 

The question was taken on Mr. Livingston's amendment, and 
decided in the negative. The whole address was then read with 
the slight amendments previously ordered, and the question was 
about to be submitted as to its final acceptance, when Mr. Thomas 
Blount, of Xorth Carolina, demanded the yeas and nays, in order 
that posterity might see that he did not con^nt to the address- 
Posterity, which has nearly forgotten Mr. Blount, will doubtless 
oblige him so far. The yeas and nays were then taken, with this 
result : For accepting the address, sixty-seven votes ; against its 
acceptance, twelve. The following gentlemen voted against it : 
Thomas Blount, Isaac Coles,William B. Giles, Christopher Greenup, 
James Holland, Andrew Jackso:n-, Edward Livmgston, Matthew 
Locke, William Lyman, Samuel Maclay, Nathaniel Macon, and 
Abraham Venable. 

Jackson's vote on this occasion merely shows that in 1190 he 
belonged to the most radical wing of the JefFersonian party, the * 
" Mountain" of the house of representatives. His vote does honor 
to his courage and indeijendence, if not to his judgment. 

On Thursday, December 29th, 1796, the member from Tennessee 
first addressed the house. In -1793, wMle Tennessee was still a 



66 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON, [l797. 

Territory under tlie federal govcrmnent, General Sevier, induced 
thereto by extreme provocation and the imminent peril of the settle- 
ments, led an expedition against the Indians without waiting for tlie 
authorization of the general government. One of those who served 
on this expedition was a young student by the name of Hugh L. 
iWhite, afterward judge, senator, and candidate for the presidency, 
i Young White killed a great chief, the Kingfisher, 'in battle. After 
,the return of the exjjedition, it became a question whether the 
government would pay the expenses of an expedition which it had 
not authorized. To test the question, Hugh L. White sent a peti- 
tion to Congress askiug compensation for his services. On the day 
named above, the subject came before the committee of the whole 
house ; when a report on Mr. White's petition, from the secretary 
of war, was read. The report recounted the facts, and added, 
that it was for the house to decide whether the provocation and 
danger were such as to justify the calling out of the troops. Vv^here- 
upon, " Mr. A. Jackson," in a few energetic remarks, defended the 
claims of his fellow-citizens. The debate continued for a consider- 
able time, Jackson occasionally interposing explanations, and reply- 
ing to the objections of members. The result of his exertions was, 
that the subject was referred to a select committee of five, Mr. A. 
Jackson cljairman ; who reported, of course, in favor of the peti- 
tioner, and recomniendcd that the sum of twenty-two thousand 
eight huridicd and sixteen dollars be appropriated for the pay- 
ment of the trooj>s,-,which was done. 

The member from Tennessee did not again address the house 
of representatives. His name appears in the records thenceforth 
only in the lists of yeas and nays. 

On the eighth of February, 1797, Jackson saw Mr. Vice-President 
Adams, in the presence of both houses of Congress, open the pack- 
ets containing the electoral votes for a successor to General Wash- 
ington. For Adams, seventy-one ; Jefferson, sixty-eight ; Thomas 
Pinckney, fifty-nine ; Buit, thirty ; with scattering votes for Sam- 
uel Adams, Jay, Clinton, and others. The vice-president modest- 
ly announced that the "person" who had received seventy-one 
votes was 'elected president. A few weeks later, I presume, the 
honorable member from Tennessee witnessed the inauguration ; 
" scarcely a dry eye but AVashington's ;" " the sublimest thing yet 
exhibited in America," oaid the chief actor in the scene. 



1797.] JACKSON IN CONGRESS. 67 

Congress adjourned on the third of March, and Andrew Jackson 
took a final farewell of the house ; for at the war session of the fol- 
lowing summer ^he did not appear. His conduct in the house of 
representatives was keenly approved by Tennesseeans. Senator 
Cocke wrote home during the session : " Your representative, Mr. 
Jackson, has distinguished himself by the spirited manner in which 
he opposed the report (of the secretary of war, upon the petition 
of Hugh L. White). Notwithstanding the misrepresentations of 
the secretaiy, I hope the claim will be allowed ; if it is, a principle 
will be- established for the payment of all services done by the mili- 
tia of the territory." When, therefore, the news came, so«i after, 
that Mr. Jackson had been completely successful, and that, in con- 
sequence of his exertions, every man in Tennessee, who had done ser- 
vices or lost property in the ludian Avars, might hope for ccunpensa- 
tion from the general government, it may be concluded that the 
representative was a very popular man. 

Accordingly, a vacancy in the senate of the United States occur- . 
ring this year, AndrcAV Jackson received the appointment, and re- 
turned to Philadelphia in the autumn of 1797, a senator. The ses- 
sion began on the thirteenth of November. On the twenty-second, 
" Andrew Jackson, appointed a senator by the state of Tennessee, 
produced his credentials, which were read ;" whereupon, " the oath 
required by law was administered " to him and ol^er new members, 
by the temporary chairman of the senate — Vice-President Jefferson 
not having yet arrived? 

And that is nearly all we know of the career of Andrew Jackson 
in the senate at that time. His record is a blank. Ih the list of 
yeas and nays, his name never occurs, though that of his colleague 
is never wanting. 

The business of that session was so late in reaching the senate 
that four months passed before there was a single division of suffi- 
cient importance to be recorded in Mr. Benton's voluminous 
Abridgment. Congress was Avaiting, the president was waiting, 
the new army was "waiting, the country Avas waiting, to learn the 
issue of negotiations with France ; to learn Av^hether it was ne- 
cessary to legislate for peace or for Avar. The senators from Ten- 
nessee, meanwhile, Avere occuj^ied, so f^ as they Avere occupied at 
all, Avith the arrangement of the dispute between Tennessee and the 
general government on the subject of tlie Cherokee bomadary, re- 



68 ' LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1798. 

specting which the new state had sent to .Congress a weighty me- 
moriaL ^.•* 

In April, 1798, Senator Jackson asked and obtained leave of ab- 
sence for the remainder* of the session. He went home to Nash- 
ville, and immediately resigned his seat in the senate. This he did 
partly because he was worn ont with the tedium of that honorable 
idleness ; partly because he felt himself ont of place in so slow and 
"dignified" a body; partly because he was disgusted with the ad- 
ministration and its projects ; partly because it was "^inderstood" 
that, if he resigned, his connection, General Daniel Smith, would 
be api^ointed to the vacated seat; but cldefly for reasons, personal 
and pecuniary, which will be exjslained hereafter. 

Of Jackson's mode of life in PhiladelpMa during his two sessions, 
we know scarcely any thing. From his letters of a later period I 
learn that he became acquainted there with that truly remarkable 
character, William Duane, of the Aurora^ most potent of repiibli- 
*can journals. He formed a very high idea of Mr. Duane's character 
and talents. Boi'n to fortune in the state of New York, disinher- 
ited for marrying a lady of a religion difierent from that of his 
family, yonng Duane had wandered off to the East Indies, where 
he edited a paper, and took the part of the Sepoys in one of their 
rebellions against British authority. He w^as forced to leave the 
country, an.d wenfto England, where he procured employment on 
the newspaper which is now known as th^London Times. Re- 
turning to his native land, he threw himself into the politics of that 
turbulent period wdaich foUoAved the French Revolution. He wrote 
a history of the French Revolution. He wrote learnedly on mili- 
tary subjects. He joined Mr. Bache ,in the editorship of the Au- 
rora, and "wrote so powerfully in behalf of Jefferson and republi- 
canism, that he long enjoyed the credit of having effected the first 
national triumph of the republican party. 

With Aaron Burr, who had taken a leading part in advocating 
the prompt admission of Tennessee into the Union, and who then 
ranked next to Jefferson in the 'esteem of republicans, Jackson be- 
came acquainted, as a matter of course. Burr was omnipotent 
Avith your Bonest country member. That Jackson Avas pleased 
Avith the man and gratifid^ Avith his attentions, there is abundant 
reason to believe. I imagine, too, that the Tennesseean caught 
from Burr sometli'ni;- of that Avinning courtliness of manner for 



1798.] JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT. 69 

• 

wliicli he was afterward distinguished above all the gentlemen of 
his lime, except Tecumseh and Charles X.* Occasionally, I pre- 
sume, the member from Tennessee might have been seen at the 
house of Vice-President Jefferson, the great chief of the party to 
Avhich he was attached. From later letters of Jackson's it is to be 
inferred that his acquaintance with Mr. Jeflerson, at this time, was 
somewhat intimate. 

His most admired acquaintance among the public men of the day 
appears to have been Edward Livingston, the republican member 
of the house of representatives from ISTew York ; one of the in- 
tellectual young men of that time who went along with Jefferson 
heart and soul in his political opinions. A true democrat, a lover 
of Jackson-^we shall meet him again ere long, and get better ac- 
quainted with him before we part. 



CHAPTER Vni. 

JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT. 

Early in the year 1798, then, Andrew Jackson returned to his 
home on the banks of the Cumberland, a private citizen, and intend- 
ing to remain such. But it^ seems he could not yet be spared from 
public life. Soon after his return to Tennessee, he was elected by 
the legislature to a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of the 
state ; a post which he said he accepted in obedience to his favor-- 
ite maxim, that the citizen of a free commonwealth should never 
seek and never decline piiblic duty. The office assigned him was 
next in consideration, as in emolument, to that of governor ; the 
governor's salary being seven hmidred and fifty dollars a year, and 
the judge's six hundred. He retained the judgeship for six years, 
holding courts in due succession at Jonesboro', Knoxville, Nashville, 
and at places of less importance ; dispensing the best justice he 
was master of. 

Not a decision of Judge Jackson's Js on record. The recorded 
decisions of the court over which he presided begin with those of 

* These two exceptions alone I have heard made by those competent to judge. 



70 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1798. 

judge Overton, Jackson's siiccessor. To the present bar of Ten- 
nessee, therefore, it is as though no Judge Jackson ever sat on 
the bench ; for he is never quoted, nor referred to as authority. 
Tradition reports that hemaintained the dignity and authority of the 
bench, while he was on the bench ; and that his decisions were 
short, untechniccti, unlearned, sometimes ungrammatical, and gen- 
erally right. Integrity is seven-tenths of a qualification for any 
trust. When not blinded by passion, by prejudice, or by gratitude, 
Judge Jackson's sense of right was strong and clear. Moreover, 
the cases that came before the courts of Tennessee at that day were 
usually such as any fair-minded man was competent to decide 
correctly. Jackson, I believe, wore a gown Avhile in court, as did 
also the lawyers at that period, even in far-off Tennessee. This I 
infer from an entry in the old records of Davidson Academy, which 
orders the students to wear a gown of light, black stuff, over their 
clothes, similar to those worn by " professional gentlemen." 

It was while Jackson was judge of the Supreme Court of Ten- 
nessee that his feud with Governor Sevier came to an issue. This 
affair, considering that one of the belligerents was governor of the 
state, and the other its supreme judge, must be pronounced one of 
the most extraordinary of " difficulties." 

John Sevier was a man after a pioneer's own heart. Past fifty 
at the time of which we are writing, he was still the handsomest 
man in Tennessee ; of erect, military bearing ; a man of the hunting 
shirt ; easy, affable, generous, and talkative ; fond of popularity, 
and an adept in those arts by which it is won ; a prince of the 
backwoods ! For twenty years he was the fighting man of Ten- 
nessee, the hope and trust of beleaguered emigrants, and the tei'ror 
of the marauding savage. He fought in thirty-five battles, and 
was never wounded and never defeated. Mr. Ramsey tells us that 
"the secret of his success was the impetuosity and vigor of his 
charge." " Himself," adds the annalist, " an accomplished horse- 
man, a graceful rider, passionately fond of a spirited charger, always 
well mounted at the head of his dragoons, he was at once in the 
midst of the fight. Plis rapid movements, always unexpected and 
sudden, disconcerted the enemy, and at the first onset decided the 
victory." 

The immediate occasion of the rupture was this : on his way to 
Philadelphia in the fall of 1 796, Jackson fell in with a young travels r, 



1798.] JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT. 71 

who told him there Avas a company of land speculators in Tennessee, 
who were forging North Carolina land-warrants, and selling, on 
various other pretexts, Tennessee lands to which they had no right. 
Jackson, always strenuous for fair dealing and fair play, thought 
proper to write to the governor of North Carolina, giving him an 
account of the young man's statement ; and the governor laid the 
letter before the legislature. An investigation ensued. It was 
found that the information was not without foundation, and it led 
to measures which interfered with land speculation in Tennessee, 
threw some doubt on all land titles, and caused large numbers of 
Tennesseeans to look upon Jackson as a man who had done at 
officious and injurious action. The affair made a great clamor at*^ 
the time. One man, Stockley Donelson, a connection of Jackson's 
by marriage, was indicted for conspiracy and fraud, and the torn 
remains of the indictment are still preserved in the collection of the 
president of the Tennessee 'Historical Society. Among those who 
had unsuspectingly bought and sold the lands said to have been 
fraudulently obtained, was no less a personage than John Sevier, 
governor of the state. And among the quarrels that grew out of 
the business, was a most fierce one between him and the innocent 
cause of all the trouble. Judge Jackson. 

First, there was a coolness between the two men • then alterca- 
tions ; then total estrangement ; then loud, recriminating talk on both 
sides, reported to both ; then various personal encounters, of which 
I heard in Tennessee so many different accounts, that I was con- 
vinced no one knew any thing about them. At last, in the year 1 801 , 
Jackson gained an advantage over Sevier which was peculiarly cal- 
culated to wound, disgust, and exasperate the impetuous old soldier, 
victor in so many battles. 

Sevier was then out of office. The major-generalship of militia 
was vacant, and the two belligerents were candidates for the post, 
which at that time was keenly coveted by the very first men in the 
state. Nor was it then merely an affair of title, regimentals, and 
showy gallopings on the days of general muster. There were then 
Indians to be kept in awe, as well as constant rumors and threaten- 
ings of war with France or England. The office of major-general 
was in the gift of the field officers, who were empowered by the 
constitution to select their chief. The canvassings and general agi- 
tation which preceded the election on this occasion may be imagined. 



72 LIFE OF AXDKEW JACKSON. [1803. 

The clay came. The election was held. There was a tie, an equal 
number of votes being cast for Jackson and Sevier. In such a con- 
juncture, the governor of the state, being, from his office, command- 
er-in-chief of the militia, had a casting vote. Governor Roane 
gave his vote for Jackson, who thu=5 became the major-general, to 
the discomfiture of the other competitor. 

A year or two later, Sevier was. a candidate for the governorship 
again, and a campaign ensued which revived and inflamed all the 
old animosities. East Tennessee was full of Sevier's i^artisans, who, 
in the course of the canvass, imbibed the antipathy of their chief to 
the favorite of West Tennessee. 

In the fall of 1803, while Jackson was on his way from Nashville 
to Jonesboro', where he was about to hold a court, he was informed 
by a friend, who met him on the road, that a combination had been 
formed against him, and that on his arrival at Jonesboro' he might 
expect to be mobbed. He was sick, at the time, of an intermittent 
fever, which had so reduced his strength that he was scarcely able 
to sit on his horse. On hearing this intelligence, he spurred for- 
ward, and reached the town ; but was so exhausted that he could not 
dismount without help. Burning with fever, he lay down u^oon a 
bed in the tavern. A few minutes after, a friend came in and said 
that Colonel Harrison and a " regiment of men " were in front of 
the tavern, who had assembled for the purpose of tarring and feath- 
ering him. His friend advised him to lock his door. Jackson rose 
suddenly, threw his door wide open, and said, with that peculiar 
emphasis which won him so many battles without fighting, 

" Give my compliments to Colonel Harrison, and tell him my door 
is open to receive him and his regiment Avhenever they choose to 
wait upon me, and that I hope the colonel's chivalry will induce him 
to lead his men, not follow them." 

The regiment, either because they were ashamed to harm a sick 
man, or afraid to attack a desperate one, thought better of their 
purpose, and gradually dispersed. Judge Jackson recovered from 
his fevei", held his court as usual, and heard nothing further of any 
hostile designs at Jonesboro'. 

His next court was at Knoxville, the capital of the state, the resi- 
dence of Governor Sevier, where the legislature was in session. 
The presence of the legislature, and the convening of the Supreme 
Court, had filled the town with people. The land fraud excitement 



1803.] JUDGK OF THE SUPREME COURT. 73 

was at its height, as the subject was about to come before the legis- 
hiture. Judge Jackson an'ived in due time, and opened his court 
without molestation ; but as he was leaving the court-house at the 
end of the first day's session, he found a great crowd assembled in 
the square before the door, in the midst of which he observed 
his enemy, the governor, sword in hand, haranguing the excit- 
ed multitude. The moment Jackson appeared upon the scene, 
Sevier turned upon him, and poured upon him a volley of vitupera- 
tion ; to which Jackson promptly responded. A wild altercation 
ensued, in the course of which, it is said, Sevier frequently defied 
Jackson to mortal combat. They separated at length, and Jackson 
sent the governor a challenge, which was accepted ; but as they 
could not agree as to the time and' place of meeting, the negotiation 
ended by Jackson suddenly posting Sevier as a coward. 

In those mad, fighting times there was in vogue, beside^ the duel, 
a kind of informal combat, which was resorted to when the details 
of a duel could not be arranged. A man might refuse the "satis- 
faction " of a duel, and yet hold himself bound to meet his antago- 
nist at a certain time and place, either alone or accompanied, and 
" have it out " with him in a rough-and-tumble fight. So, on this 
occasion, there was an " understanding " that the belligerents were 
to meet at a designated point just beyond the borders of the state. 
Jackson was there at the appointed time, accompanied by one 
friend. The governor, accidentally detained, did not arrive in 
time. Jackson waited near the spot for two days ; but no irate 
governor appearing above the horizon, he determined to return to 
Knoxville and compel Sevier to a hostile interview. 

He had not gone a mile toward the capital before he descried 
Governor Sevier approaching on horseback, accompanied by mount- 
ed men. Reining in his steed, he sent his friend forward to convey 
to Sevier a letter which he had prepared during the two days of 
waiting, in which he recounted their differences from the begin- 
ning, stating wherein he conceived himself to have been injured. 
Sevier declined to receive the letter. On learning this, Jackson 
appeared to lose all patience, and resolved to end the matter then 
and there, cost what it might. He rode slowly toward the gov- 
ernor's party until he was Avithin a hundred yards of them. Then, 
leveling his cane, as knights of old were wont to level their lances, 
he struck spurs into his horse, and galloped furiously at the gov- 
4 



74 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [l803. 

ernor. Sevier, astounded at this tremendous "apparition, and in- 
tending, if he fought at all, to fight f lirly and on terra Jirma, dis- 
mounted ; but, in so doing, stepped upon the scabbard of his sword, 
and fell prostrate under his horse. Jackson, seeing his enemy thus 
vanish from his sight, reined in his own fiery steed, and gave time 
for the governor's friends to get between them and prevent a con- 
flict. Through the eiforts of some gentlemen in Sevier's party who 
were friends of both the belligerents, the affair was patched up 
upon the spot, and the whole party rode toward Knoxville together 
in amity. Nor was there any renewal of the combat. The anger 
of the antagonists and their friends found vent in newspaper state- 
ments, and after a brief paper war, exhausted itself. 

After the explosion of his feud with Governor Sevier, Judge 
Jackson, never pleased with his office, nor feeling himself adapted 
to it, became more dissatisfied than ever, and longed to exchange 
the bench for a place demanding less confinement, and more action. 
In 1803, the purchase of Louisiana was completed, and Jackson 
had an expectation of receiving, from President Jefierson, the ap- 
pointment of governor of that territory. President Jeflierson, 
• however, gave the appointment to Mr. W. C. C. Claiborne, with 
whom General Jackson co-oj^erated in the defence of New Or- 
leans, in the war of 1812. Jackson's resignation of the judge- 
ship was accepted by the legislature, and he found himself, to his 
unfeigned relief, once more in private life, free to devote himself 
to his own afiairs, which urgently called for his attention. For 
some years after his retirement from the bench, he was sometimes 
called, and called himself, Judge Jacksoji. So, at least, I conclude 
from a pleasant little narrative received from a venerable and most 
estimable lady of Nashville, which shall conclude and alleviate this 
warlike chapter. 

" It was in 1808," began Mrs. K., " when I was a girl of sixteen, 
that I first saw General Jacksou- It was in East Tennessee, at the 
house of Captain Lyon, whose family myself and another young 
lady were visiting. We were sitting at work one afternoon, when 
a servant, who was lounging at the window, exclaimed, ' Oh, see 
what a fine, elegant gentleman is coming up the road !' We girls 
ran to the window, of course, and there, indeed, was a fine gentle- 
man, mounted on a beautiful horse, an upright, striking figure, high 
jack-boots corning up over the. knee, holsters, and everything hand- 



1803.] JACKSON AS A MAN OF BUSI-NESS. 15 

■ron-\e and complete. He stopped before the door, and said to a 
negro whom he saw there : 

" ' Old man, does Captain Lyon live here ?' 

" Tlie old man gave the desired information. 

" ' Is he at home ?' inquired the stranger. 

" He was not at home. 

" ' Do you expect him home to-night ?' 

" Yes ; he was expected every moment. The old man was there 
waiting to take his horse. 

" ' Well, my good boy,' continued the stranger, ' I have come to 
see Captain Lyon ; and, as he is coming home to-night, I will alight 
and walk in.' 

" The old negro, all assiduity and deference, led the horse to the 
stable, and the stranger entered the house, Avhere we girls were 
sitting as demurely as though we had not been peeping and listen- 
ing. We all rose as he entered the room. He bowed and smiled, 
as he said : 

" ' Excuse my intruding upon you, ladies, in the absence of Cap- 
tain Lyon. I am Judge JTackson. I have business with C aptain 
Lyon, and am here by his invitation. I hoi^e I do not incommode 
you.' 

"We were all captivated by this poHte speech, and the 
agreeable manner in which it was spoken. Soon after, Captain 
Lyon entered, accompanied by two officers of the army, one of 
whom was Dr. Bronaugh. We had a delightful evening. I re- 
member Jackson was full of anecdote, and told us a great deal 
about the early days of Tennessee. Dr. Bronaugh, as it happened, 
sat next to me, and paid me somewhat marked attentions. The 
party broke up the next morning, and we saw Judge Jackson ride 
away on his fine horse, and all agreed that a finer lookmg man or a 
better horseman there was not in Tennessee." 



CHAPTER LX. 

JACKSON AS A MAN OF BUSINESS. 

Some trade was carried on between the Cumberland settlements 
and the Atlantic provinces almost from the first. Salt was brought, 
on pack horses, all the way from Richmond, in Virginia, and from 



Id LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [l804. 

Augusta, in Georgia, and was sold in Tennessee at ten dollai's a 
bushel. At that day, we are tolcf, the salt gourd was the treasure 
of every cabin. Iron. also, was brought, on pack horses, from the 
East, and sold at fabulous prices ; so that it was used only in the 
repairing of plows and such other fai-ming utensils as could not be 
made wholly of wood. Only wooden nails, latches, and hinges were 
known ia the settlements for many years. The hunting-shirts of 
skins or home-spun cloth, mocca^ns, hats of home-dressed fur, 
were generally worn, and rendered dry goods brought from the 
East unnecessary. But when Jackson came to the Cumberland, in 
1788, Nashville was already the center of an active trade, not only 
with the Eastern States, but with JSTatchez and New Orleans. 
" Teh horses, packed with goods from Philadelphia, traveling by 
slow stages through the length of Virginia, and arriving at the Bluff 
in the fall of the year 1786, proves that Nashville was not then a 
' one horse town,' " says a Tennessee writer. 

We have seen General Jackson abruptly resigning the honora- 
ble post of senator of the United States. To be a member of Con- 
gress, at that day, from a state so remote as Tennessee (six weeks' 
journey from Philadelphia) absorbed nearly the whole year ; and 
this alone would have rendered such a man as Jackson, formed for 
activity and keen in the pursuit of fortune, averse to filling the 
office. Nor was there ever a'man less inclined than he to pass the 
best hours of every day for seven successive months, quiescent in a 
red morocco chair, playing Senator. In 1798, while still holding 
his seat in the senate, he succeeded in selling to a merchant of Phil- 
adelphia, who desired to invest money in western lands, some thou- 
sands of his own wild acres, for the sum of six thousand six hun- 
dred and seventy-six dollars. The purchaser was David Allison, 
then one of the most extensive merchants in the country, a man 
whose i^aper, had he lived in our day, would have been styled 
" gilt-edged." Allison paid for the land in three promissory notes, 
which were payable, as I conjecture, at intervals of a year or a 
year and a half But so high was the credit of Allison, that Jack- 
son was able with these long notes, indorsed by himself, to buy in 
Philadelphia a stock of goods suitable for the settlements on the 
Cumberland river. He then resigned his seat in the senate; sent 
on his goods by wagons to Pittsburg, by flat-boat down the Ohio 
to Louisville, by Avagons again, or p ck horses, across the country 



1 804.] JACKSON AS A MAN OF BUSINESS. 77 

to the neighborhood of Nashville ; and went home himself to sell 
them. 

He lived then upon a plantation called Hunter's Hill, about 
thirteen miles from Nashville, and two miles from the " Hermit- 
age " that was to be. He owned there a tract of many thousand ^ 
acres, of which a part was the subsequent Hermitage farm. A 
small portion only of his estate was under culture, but his impor- 
tance in the neighborhood was attested by his living in a frame 
house, at a time when a house not made of logs was a curiosity. 
Long ago this mansion was burnt, but there is still standing, or re- 
cently was, a small block house near Hunter's Hill, which Jackson 
is said to have used as a store, and from a narrow window of 
which he sold goods to the Indians ; whose thieving propensities 
obliged him to exclude them from the interior of the establishment. 
In the selling of his goods and the general management of his 
business, he was, for some years, assisted by John Hutchings, a near 
relation of Mrs. Jackson. 

Jackson, as Ave have seen, accepted the judgeship of the Supreme 
Court, intending to continue his little store in operation, and to 
snatch time enough between his courts to make an occasional swift 
journey to Philadelphia for the purchase of a fresh supply of goods. 
For a while all went well with him. But, before the first Allison 
note was due, came the crash and panic of 1798 and 1799, during 
which David Allison failed. Notice was forwarded to Jackson to 
provide for the payment of the notes with which he had bought his 
stock of goods. This was a staggering blow ; not only because the 
amount of the loss was large, but because the notes had to be paid 
in money, real money, money that was current in Philadelphia, 
which, of all commodities, was the one most scarce in the new states 
of the far West. To the honor of Andrew Jackson be it recorded, 
that each of these large notes was paid, principal and interest, on 
the day of its luaturity. To do this cost him a long and desperate 
eiibrt, one more severe, perhaps, than any other of his whole life, 
pubHc or private. But it was done. In doing it, however, he be- 
came involved in various ways. He was an embarrassed and anxious 
man during the whole period of his judgeship, and found himself, 
after six years of pixblic service, embarrassed and anxious still. 

Andrew Jackson was a man singularly averse to any thing coni- 
plicated ■ and of all complications the one under which he was most 



78 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSOX. , [1804. 

restive was debt. He hated debt. So, about the year 1804, he 
resolved upon siinpUtymg, or " straightening out " his affairs, and 
commencing life anew. He resigned his judgeship. He sold his 
house and improved farm on Hunter's Hill. He sold twenty-five 
► thousand acres, more or less, of his wild lands in other parts of the 
state. He paid off all his debts. He removed, with his negroes, 
to the place now known as the Hermitage, and lived once more in 
a house of logs. He went more extensively into mercantile business 
than ever. Soon, we find him connected in business with John 
Coffee ; the firm now being Jackson, Coffee & Hutchings. Coffee 
had before been engaged in business in a neighboring village, and, 
says tradition, had failed. The store occupied by the firm of Jackson, 
Cofiee & Hutchings was a block-house, standing then, and stand- 
ing now, on Stone's River, at a place called Clover Bottom, four 
miles from the Hermitage, and seven from Nashville. The old 
block-house is now a pile without inhabitant ; the mortar is falhng 
out of the interstices ; the windows are broken ; the roof is rotting 
away. Cofiee (not yet nmrried to Mrs. Jackson's niece) lived in the 
block-house then, as well as sold merchandise therein, and Jackson 
rode over in the morning from the Hermitage, served in the store 
all day, and rode home at night, with the regularity of a man of 
business. ISTeed I add, that this John Coffee, the pai-tner of Andrew 
Jackson, was afterward his faithful comrade in the wars — General 
Coffee, the hero of the twenty-third of December 1814 ! 

Jackson was now a man with many irons in the fire. -First, there 
was his farm, cultivated by slaves, superintended by Mrs. Jackson, 
in the absence of her lord. The large family of slaves, one hundred 
and fifty in number, of which he died possessed, were mostly de- 
scended from the few that he owned in his storekeeping days. He 
was a vigilant and successful farmer. To use the language of the 
South, " He made good crops." He was proud of a well cultiva- 
ted field. Every visitor was invited to go the rounds of his farm, 
and see his cotton, corn, and wheat, his horses, cows, and mules. 
He had, also, a backwoodsman's skill in repairmg and ■ contriving, 
and spent many a day in putting an old plow in order, or finishing 
off" a new cabin. 

On his plantation he had a cotton-gin, a rarity at that day, upon 
which there was a special tax of twenty dollars a year. The tax 
books of Davidson county show that in 1804 there were but twenty- 



1804.] JACKSON AS A MAN OF BUSINESS. 79 

four giiis iu the county, of which Andrew Jackson was the owner of 
one. This cotton-gin served to clean his own cotton, the cotton of 
his neighbors, and that which he took in exchraige for goods. 

The business of his store was of several kinds. He sold goods 
brought from Philadelj^hia, such as cloth, blankets, calico, and dry 
goods generally ; prices on the Cumberland being about three times 
those of Philadelphia. Broadcloth bought in Philadelphia for five 
dollars a yard, Jackson, Coffee & Hutchings sold in their store for 
fifteen dollars. They also dealt in salt, grindstones, hardware, gun- 
powder, cow bells, and whatever else the people of the neighbor- 
hood wanted. In payment for these commodities, they took, not 
mone}^, but cotton, ginned and unginned, wheat, corn, tobacco, 
pork, skins, furs, and, indeed, all the produce of the country. This 
produce they sent in flat-boats down the Cumberland, the Ohio, 
and the Mississippi to Natchez, where it was sold for the market of 
New^ Orleans. It appears, also, that the firm made it a business to 
build boats for other traders, their situation on a branch of the 
Cumberland giving them facilities for that. At one time, too, 
probably before Coffee joined them, Jackson and Hutchings had a 
branch of their store at Gallatin, the capital of Sumner county, 
Tennessee, twenty-six miles from Nashville. 

General Jackson's fine horses were also a source of profit to him. 
At that period a good horse was among the pioneer's first necessi- 
ties and most valued possessions ; and, to this day, the horse is a 
creature of far more importance at the South, where every one rides 
and must ride on horseback, than at the North, where riding is the 
luxury of the few. 

In the Southern States, too, the horse is chiefly used for the 
saddle ; there being a servile class of quadrupeds, mules, namely, 
to perform the more laborious and less honorable work of the 
plantation. The consequence is, that the qualities prized in the 
horse are those which fit him to bear his master along with grace, 
spirit, and speed ; the qualities which are summed up in the ex- 
pression, thorough-bred. At an early day, therefore, we find the 
Tenjiesseeans devotino- Cfreat attention to the rearino- of high-bred 
korses — a business afterward stimulated by their passion for the 
turf. Soon after Jackson left the bench, he set off" for a tour in 
Virginia, then universally renowned for her breed of horses, for 
the sole object of procuring the most ])erfect horse in the country. 



80 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSOiST. [1804. 

The far-famed Truxton was the result of this journey ; Truxton — 
winner of many a well-contested race, and progenitor of a line of 
Truxtons highly prized in Tennessee to this hour. 

To all these sources of profit — farm, cotton-gin, store, flat-boat 
and horse — was added, it is said, an occasional transaction in 
negroes. There is an odium attached to this business in the slave 
states, as is well known ; and, consequently, the alleged negro trad- 
ing of General Jackson has excited a great deal of angry contro- 
versy. I was myself informed, in a mysterious whisper, by a South- 
ern gentleman in high office, that this was the only " blot" on the 
character of the General. It is not necessary to investigate a sub- 
ject of this nature. The simple truth respecting it, I presume, is, 
that having correspondents in Natchez, and being in the habit of 
sending down boat-loads of produce, the firm of which he was a 
member occasionally took charge of negroes destined for tlie lower 
country, and, it may be, sold them on commission, or otherwise. 

I may state here, that Geiun-il Jackson took slavery for granted. 
In no letter of his, of the hundreds I have perused, is there a 
sentence indicating that he had ever considered the subject as a 
question of right or wrong. His slaves loved him, and revere his 
memory. He Avas the most indulgent, patient, and generous of 
masters ; so indulgent, indeed, that the overseers employed by him 
in later years, often complained of the conseqixent laxity of disci- 
pline on the estate. 

Respecting General Jackson's mode of dealing, we have agree- 
able information. "A cool, shrewd man of business," remarked a 
venerated citizen of Nashville. " He knew the value of an article. 
He knew his own mind. Hence, he was prompt and decided. No 
chaffering, no bargaining. ' I will give or take so much ; if you 
will trade, say so, and have done with it ; if not, let it alone.' A 
man of soundest judgment, utterly honest, tiaturally honest ; 
would beggar himself to pay a debt, and did so ; could not be 
comfortable if he thought he had Avronged any one. He was SAvift to 
make up his mind, yet Avas rarely Avrong; but whether Avrong or 
right, hard to be shaken. Still, if cionvinced that he Avas in the 
Avrong, no man so pifimpt to acknoAvledge and atone. He Avas a bank 
hater from an early day. Paper money was an abomination to him, 
because he regarded it in the light of a promise to pay, that A\'as 
almost ce-Uiin, sooner or later, to be broken. For his own part, 



1S05.] JACKSON AS A MAN OF BUSINESS, 81 

law. or no law, he would pay what he owed ; he would do what he 
said he would." 

The credit of General Jackson was remarkably high in Tennessee 
at this time, and continued so to the end of* his life. There was 
never a day when his name to paper did not make it gold. 

The store of Jackson, Coffee & Hutchings, it appears, did not 
prove very profitable. Some bad debts were made, and as there 
was then no mail between Nashville and the lower country, there 
was no way of ascertaining beforehand the market price of the 
commodities brought for transportation to New Orleans. Some- 
times the boat-loads of produce reached a glutted market, and there 
was a heavy loss. Moreover, the enormous cost of bringing goods 
from Philadelphia to the Cumberland narrowed the " margin" for 
profit, besides absorbing a large amount of money. The tradition 
is, that after some years of storekeeping, Jackson sold out to 
Cofiee, taking notes payable at long intervals in payment for his 
share ; that Coflee floundered on awhile himself and lost all he had 
in the world*; that, afterward, Cottee gave up the business, resumed 
the occupation of surveying, prospered, and married a niece of Mrs. 
Jackson ; that, on the wedding-day, General Jackson did the 
liandsome and dramatic thing — brought out Coffee's notes from his 
strong box, tore them in halves, and presented the pieces to the 
bride, with a magnificent bow. Which latter incident has the 
mei'it of being entirely probable ; for his generosity to the relatives 
of his wife v\'as boundless. 

He was still a keen lover of sport. The people about Nashville 
increased very rapidly both in numbers and wealth after the new 
century began. It became a gay an<l somewhat dissipated place. 
Billiards, for example, were played to such excess, that the game 
was suppressed by act of the legislature. The two annual races 
were the great days of the year. Cards were played wherever two 
men found themselves together with nothing to do. Betting in all 
its varieties was carried on continually. Cock-fights were not un- 
frequent. The whisky bottle — could that be wanting ? 

In all these sports — the innocent and less innocent — Andrew 
Jackson was an occasional participant. He played billiards and cards, 
and l)oth for money. He ran horses and betted upon the horses 
of others. He was occasiontiUy hilarious over his whisky or his 
wine, when he came to Nadiville on Saturdays. At the cock-pit 



82 LIFE or ANDREW JACKSON. [1806. 

no man more eager than he. There are gentlemen of the first> re- 
spectability now living at Nashville who remember seeing him often 
ut the cock-})it in the public square adjoining the old Nashville inn, 
cheering on his favorite birds with loudest vociferation. 

" Hurrah ! my Dominica ! Ton dollars on my Dominica !" oi", 
" Hurrah ! my Bernadottc ! Twenty dollars on my Bernadotte ! 
Who'll take me up ? Well done, my Bernadotte ! My Bernadotte 
forever !" 



CHAPTER X. 

DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 

The revolutionary war introduced among the people of rustic 
America the practice of resorting to arms for the settlement of 
quarrels. Every man who had worn a sash or even shouldered a 
musket in that contest, seems to have hugged the delusion that he 
was thenceforth subject to the code of honor. He retained the 
title and affected the tone of a soldier. I call it aifectation, believ- 
ing tliat no man with Saxon blood donunant in his veins ever yet 
fought a duel without being distinctly conscious that he was doing 
a very silly thing. Yet there never existed a people so given to 
dueling and other domestic battling as the people of the South and 
West from 1790 to 1810. In Charleston, about the year 1800, we 
are told, there was a club of duelists, in which every man took 
precedence according to the number of times he had been " out ;" 
so difficult Vv'as it for the duelists to support the reproaches of their 
own good sense. "I believe," says General W.H. Harrison, "that 
there were more duels in the north- western .army between the years 
1791 and 1795 than ever took place in the same length of time, and 
among so small a body of men as composed the commissioned offi- 
cers of the army, either in America or any other country." 

As late as 1834, Miss Martineau tells us there were more duels 
fought in the* city of New Orleans than there are days in the year: 
*' Fifteen on one Sunday morning ;" "one hundred and two between 
the first of January and the end of April." 

In the interior settlements, if dueling was rarer, fighting of a less 
formal and deadly character was so common as to excite scarcely 



1806.] DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 83 

any notice or remark. It was taken for granted^ a])parently, that 
Avhenever a number of men were gathered together for any purpose 
whatever, there must be fightmg. The meetings of the legislature, 
the convening of courts, the assemblages out of doors for religious 
purjjoses, were all alike the occasion both of single combats and 
general fights. " The exercises of a market day," says the Rev. 
Mr. Milburn, " were usually varied by political speeches, a sheriff's 
sale, half a dozen, free fights and thrice as many horse swaps." 

The intelligent reader will not be misled by these general remarks. 
The majority of the pioneers, doubtless, lived in peace with their 
neighbors all the days of their lives. Nor was there any necessity, 
even for a public man, to fight duels. There was Judge Hugh L. 
White, of Tennessee, a man of proved courage, who set his face 
against the ] r-ictice of dueling from the beginning of his career, 
and lost nothing either of the good-will or the respect of his neigh- 
bors therebj . In 1817, he procured the passage of a stringent law 
which almost pir an end to duels in Tennessee. It must be added, 
however, that Judge White was an exceptional character. Such 
was his tenderness of feeling, such his horror of shedding human 
blood, that he would not permit the annalist of Tennessee to so 
much as record his youthful exploit of killing the Indian chief, the 
Kingfisher. 

For a man of General Jackson's blood and principles to have lived 
in the Tennessee of that day without fighting, was impossible. His 
blood was hot, and his principles were those of a soldier of fifty 
years ago ; principles, remember, to which he was a convert^ not an 
heir ; and a convert is apt to be over zealous. His good traits, no 
less than his bad ones, involved him in disputes which, there and 
then, could end only in fighting. He could not have been Andrew 
Jackson and not fought. 

Let most of the old Jacksonian quarrels pass into oblivion. Some 
of them, however, were of such a nature, and are so notorious, that 
they cannot be omitted in any fair account of his career. We have 
now arrived at one of these. The series of trivial and absurd events 
Avhich led to the horrible tragedy of the Dickinson duel — events 
which, but for that tragic ending, would be nothing more than amus- 
iiig illustrations of the manners of a past age — now claim our 
serious attention. 

It all grew out of a projected horse-race that was never run. 



b4 LIFE OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [180G. 

General Jackson, always fond of the turf, as all men of his tem- 
perament were, are, and will always be, was in these years particu- 
larly devoted to it, because it was a source of profit to him as Avell 
as pleasure. The Nashville race-course, too, was then at Clover 
Bottom, close to his own store, a superb circular field on Stone's 
river, famous as being the place where old Colonel Donelson, after 
his adventurous river-voyage, planted his first corn ; iamous, too, 
for having borne fine crops of corn for sixty years without rotation. 
A beautiful field it is, jftst large enough for a mile course, with the 
requisite margin for spectators and their vehicles. Here Jackson 
trained his racing colts ; here he tried the paces of his renowned 
horse, Truxton, when he first bi-oUglit liim home from Virginia ; 
here, every spring and autumn, he attended the races, among the 
most eager of the motley throng which those great occasions assem- 
bled. The ownership of Truxton rendered General Jackson a leader 
of the turf for some years, as that horse was superior to any other 
in that part of the great West. 

For the autumn races of 1805, a great race was arranged between 
General Jackson's Truxton and Captain Joseph Ervin's Plowboy. 
The stakes were two thousand dollars, payable on the day of the 
I'ace in notes, which notes were to be then due ; forfeit, eight hun- 
dred dollars. Six persons were interested in this race : on Truxton's 
side, General Jackson, Major W. P. Anderson, Major Verrell, and 
Captain Pryor ; on the side of Plowboy, Captain Ervin and his son- 
in-law, Charles Dickinson. Before the day appointed for the race 
arrived, Ervin and Dickinson decided to pay the forfeit and with- 
draw their horse, which was done, amicably done, and the afiair was 
supposed to be at an end. 

About this time a report reached General Jackson's ears that 
Charles Dickinson had uttered disparaging words of Mrs. Jackson, 
Avhich was with Jackson the sin liot to be pardoned. Dickinson 
was a lawyer by profession, but, like Jackson, speculated in produce, 
horses, and (it is said) in slaves. He was well connected, possessed 
considerable property, and had a large circle of gay friends. He is 
represented as a somewhat wild, dissipated young nian ; yet not 
unamiable, nor disposed wantonly to wound the feelings of others. 
When excited by drink, or by any other cause, he was prone to talk 
hjosely and swear violently — -as drunken men will. He had the repu- 
tation of being the best shot in Tenne.<see, XTpon hearing this report, 



1 806.] DUEL WITH CHAELES DICKINSON. 85 

General Jackson called on Dickinson and asked him if he had used 
the language attributed to him. Dickinson replied that if he had, 
it must have been when he was drunk, ^irther explanations and 
denials removed all ill feeling from General Jackson's mind, and they 
separated in a friendly manner. 

A second time, it is said, Dickinson uttered offensive words re- 
specting Mrs. Jackson in a tavern at Nashville, which were duly 
conveyed by some meddling parasite to General Jacksoij. Jack- 
son, I am told, then went to Captain Erviu, and advised him to ex- 
ert his influence over his son-in-law, and induce him to restrain 
his tongue, and comport himself like a gentleman in liis cups. " I- 
wish no quarrel with hmi," said Jackson ; " he is used by my ene- 
mies in Nashville, who are urging him on to pick a quarrel with 
me. Advise him to stop in time." It appears, however, that 
enmity grew between these two men. In January, 1806, when the 
events occurred that are now to be related, there was the worst 
possible feeling between^em. 

I give this account of the origin of the enmity as I have received 
it from General Jackson's surviving associates. Not that they re- 
ceived it from him. General Jackson was so averse to talking of a 
finished quarrel, that many of his most intimate friends — friends of 
years' standing — never heard him once allude to this sad business. 

Deadly enmity existing between Jackson and Dickinson, a very 
trivial event was sufficient to bring them into collision. A young 
lawyer of Nashville, named Swann, misled by false information, 
circulated a report that Jackson had accused the owners of Plow- 
boy of paying their forfeit in notes other than those whicli had 
been agreed upon ; notes less valuable, because not due at the date 
of settling. The starting of this report led to a most angry and 
indecent correspondence between Jackson and Swann, and, at 
length, to Jackson assulting Swann in a bar-room with a walking 
stick. Into this quarrel, as into a vortex, all the friends of both 
])arties were drawn, and a duel between General Coffee and a young 
man named Nathaniel McNairy grew out of it, in which Coffee was 
wounded. General Jackson, in one of his letters to Mr. Swann, 
went out of his way to assail Charles Dickinson, by name, calling 
him " a base poltroon and cowardly tale-bearer," requesting Swann 
to show Dickinson these oftensive words, and oflfering to meet him 
in the held if he desired satisiactio:; for the same. 



86 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1806. 

Mr. Swann showed Dickinson this insulting letter, to which 
Dickinson replie«l in language far more moderate than that em- 
l^loyed by General Jacfton. He denied that he was a tale-bearer, 
and, as to the charge of cowardice, "I think," said he, "it is as ap- 
plicable to yourself as any one I know." He concluded by saying 
that he was quite willing, when opportunity served, to exchange 
shots with Jackson. Having penned this epistle, he started down 
the rivei* toward Kew Orleans, and was absent from the scene of 
contention for some months, during which the quarrel raged on, 
and the- whole correspondence was published in the Nashville 
newspaper. Dickinson returned, and read all these bitter effusions. 
One of Jackson's letters spoke of Dickinson as a " worthless, drunk- 
en,* lying scoundrel." Upon reading the letters, Dickinson pub- 
lished a card, which contained these words : 

"I declare him, notwithstanding he is a major-general of the 
militia of Mero district, to be a worthless scoundrel, ' a poltroon 
and a coward ' — a man who, by frivoloTis and evasive pretexts, 
avoided giving the satisfaction which Avas due to a gentleman 
whom he had injured. This has prevented me from calling on 
him in the manner I should otherwise have done, for I am well 
convinced that he is too great a coward to administer any of those 
anodynes he promised me in his letter to Mr. Swann." 

Jackson instantly challenged Dickinson. The challenge was 
promptly accejDted. Friday, May 30tli, 1806, was the day appoint- 
ed for the meeting ; the weapons, pistols ; the place, a spot on the 
banks of the Red River, in Kentucky. The following rules were 
agreed upon by the seconds: "It is agreed that the distance shall 
be twenty-four feet ; the parties to stand facing each other, with 
their pistols down perpendicularly. When they are ready, the 
single word, fike, to be given ; at which they are to fire as soon as 
they please. Shoujd either fire before the word is- given, Ave pledge 
ourselves to shoot him down instantly. The person to give the 
word to be detei'mined by lot, as also the choice of position. We 
mutually agree that the above regulations shall be observed in the 
affair of honor depending betAveen General AndrcAV Jackson and 
Charles Dickinson, Esq," 

These preliminaries Avere completed on Saturday, May 24th. Tlie 
duel was not to take place till the Friday folloAving. The quarrel 
thus far had excited intense interest in Nashville, and the succes- 



1800.] DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSON. 87 

sivc numbers of the Lnpartial Hevleio had been read with avidity. 
The coming duel was no secret, though the time and place were not 
known to any but the friends of the parties. Bets, I am informed, 
were laid upon the result of the meeting, the odds being against 
Jackson. Dickinson himself is said to have bet five liundred dol- 
lars that he would bring his antagonist down at the first fire. An- 
other informant says three thousand. 

The place appointed for the meeting was a long day's ride from 
Nashville. Thursday morning, before the dawn of day, Dickinson 
stole from the side of his young and beautiful wife, and began silently 
to prepare for the journey. She awoke, and asked him wliy he was 
up so early. He replied, that he had business i!»»Kentucky across 
the Red River, but it would not detain him long. Before leaving the 
room he went up to his wife, kissed her with peculiar tenderness and 
said : 
" Good-by, darling ; 1 shall be sure to be at home to-morrow night." 
He mounted his horse and repaired to the rendezvous, where his 
second and half a dozen of the gay blades of Njxshville were waiting 
to escort him on his journey. Away they rode, in the highest spirits, 
as though they were upon a party of pleasure. Indeed, they made a 
party of pleasure of it. When they stopped for rest or refreshment, 
Dickinson is said to have amused the company by displaying his 
Avonderiul skill with the pistol. Once, at a distance of twenty-four 
feet, he fired four balls, each at the word of command, into a space 
that could be covered by a silver dollar. Several times he cut a 
string with his bullet from the same distance. It is said that he left 
a severed string hanging near a tavern, and said to the landlord as^ 
he rode away, 

" If General Jackson comes along this road, show him thatP'' 
It is also said, that he laid a wager of five hundred dollars that he 
would hit his antagonist within half an inch of a, certain button on 
his coat. I neither believe nor deny any of these stories ; but so 
many of the same kind are still told in the neighborhood, that it is 
safe to conclude that, on this fatal ride, Dickinson did affect mucli 
of that recklessness of manner Avhich was once supposed to be an 
evidence of high courage. The party went frisking and galloping 
along the lonely forest roads, making short cuts that cautious 
travelers never attempted, dashing across creeks and rivers, and 
making the woods ring and eclio Vv^th their shouts and laughter. 



88 ' LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON, [I8OG. 

Very diiferent \v:is tlie detnoanor of General Jackson and the 
party tliat accompanied liim. His second, General Thomas Overton, 
an old revolutionary soldier, versed in the science, and familiar 
with the practice of dueling, had reflected deeply upon the condi- 
tions of the coming combat, with the view to conclude upon the 
tactics most likely to save his friend from Dickinson's unerring 
bullet. For this duel was not to be the amusing mockery that some 
modern duels have been. This duel was to be real. It was to be 
an alfair in which each man was to strive with his utmost skill to 
elFect the purpose of the occasion — disable his antagonist and save 
his own life. As the principal and the second rode apart from the 
rest, they discussed all the chances and probabilities with the single 
aim to decide upon a course which should result in the disabling of 
Dickinson and the saving of Jackson. The mode of fighting which 
had been agreed upon was somewhat peculiar. The pistols were to 
be held downward until the Avord was given to fire ; then each man 
was to fire as soon as he pleased. With such an arrangement it was 
scarcely possible that both the pistols should bedischarged at the same 
moment. There was a chance, even, that by extreme quickness of 
movement, one man could bring down his antagonist without himself 
receiving a shot. The question anxiously discussed between Jack- 
son and Overton was this : Shall we try to get the first shot, or shall 
we permit Dickinson to have it ? They agreed, at length, that it 
would be decidedly better to let Dickinson fire first. In the first 
place, Dickinson, like all miraculous shots, required no time to take 
aim, and would have a far better chance than Jackson in a quick 
shot, even if both fired at once. And in spite of any thing Jackson 
could do, Dickinson would be almost sure to get the first fire. 
Moreover, Jackson was certain he Avould be hit ; and he was 
imwilling to subject his own aim to the chance of its being totally 
destroyed by the, shock of the blow. For Jackson was resolved 
on hitting Dickinson. His feelings toward his adversary were 
embittered by what he had heard of his public practicings and 
boastful wagers. " I should have hit him, if he had shot me through 
the brain," said Jackson once. In pleasant discourse of this kind, 
the two men wiled away the hours of the long journey. 

A tavern kejjt by one David Miller, somewhat noted m the 
neighborhood, stood on the banks of the Red River, near the 
ground appointed foi' the duel. Late in the afternoon of Thursday, 



1806.] DUEL WITH CHARLES DICKINSOX 89 

the 29th of May, the inmates of this tavern were surprised by tlie 
arrival of a party of seven or eight horsemen, Jacob Smith, then 
employed by Miller as an overseer, but now himself a planter in 
the vicinity, was standing before the house when this unexpected 
company rode up. One of these horsemen asked him if they could 
be accommodated witli lodgings for the night. They could. The 
l^arty dismounted, gave their horses to the attendant negroes, and 
entered the tavern. No sooner had they done so, than honest 
Jacob was perplexed by the arrival of a second cavalcade — Dickin- 
son and his friends, who also asked for lodgings. The manager told 
them the house was full ; but that he never turned travelers away, 
and if they chose to remain, he would do the best he could for 
them. Dickinson then asked where was the next house of enter- 
tainment. He was directed to a house two miles lower down the 
river, kept by William Harrison. The house is still standing. The 
room in which Dickinson slept that night, and slept the night fol- 
lowing, is the one^ now used by the occupants as a dining-room. 

Jackson ate heartily at supper that night, conversing in a lively, 
pleasant manner, and smoked his evening pipe as usual. Jacob 
Smith remembers being exceedingly pleased Avith his guest, and, 
on learning the cause of his visit, heartily wishing him a safe de- 
liverance. 

Before breakfast on the next morning the whole party mounted 
and rode down the road that wound close along the picturesque 
banks of the stream. 

About the same hour, the overseer and his gang of negroes went 
to the fields to begin their daily toil ; he, longing to venture with- 
in sight of what he knew was about to take place. 

The horsemen rode about a mile along the river ; then turned 
down toward the river to a point on the bank where they had 
expected to find a ferryman. No ferryman appearing, Jackson 
spurred his horse into the stream and dashed across, followed by 
all his party. They rode into the poplar forest, two hundred yards 
or loss, to a spot near the center of a level platform or river bottom, 
then covered with forest, now smiling with cultivated fields. The 
horsemen halted and dismounted just before reaching the appointed 
place. Jackson, Overton, and a surgeon who had come with them 
from home, walked on together, and the rest led theii- horses a 
short distance in an opposite direction. 



90 L I r E O F A N D 11 E W J A C K S O N . [l 806. 

" How do you feci about it now, General ?" asked one of the 
party, as Jackson turned to go. 

" Oh, all right," replied Jackson, gayly ; " I shall wing him, 
never fear." 

Dickinson's second Avon the choice of position, and Jackson's the 
office of scivino; the word. The astute Overton considered this giv- 
ing of the word a matter of great importance, and he had already 
determined Jiov) he would give it, if the lot fell to him. The eight 
paces were measured oif, and the men placed. Both were jjer- 
fectly collected. All the politenesses of such occasions were very 
strictly and elegantly performed. Jackson was dressed in a loose 
frock-coat, buttoned carelessly over his chest, and concealing in 
some degree the extreme slenderness of his figure. Dickinson was 
the younger and handsomer man of the two. But Jackson's tall, 
erect figure, and the still intensity of his demeanor, it is said, gave 
him a most superior and commanding air, as he stood under the 
tall poplars on this bright May morning, silently awaiting the mo- 
ment of doom. 

" Are you ready ?" said Overton. 

" I am ready," replied Dickinson. 

" I am ready," said Jackson. 

The words Vv^ere no sooner pi'onounced than Overton, with a sud- 
den shout, cried, using his old country pronunciation, 

" Feee !" 

Dickinson raised his pistol quickly and fired. Overton, who was 
looking with anxiety and dread at Jackson, saw a pulf of dust fly 
from the breast of his coat, and saw him raise his left arm and place 
it tiglitly across his chest. He is surely hit, thought Overton, and 
in a bad place, too : but no ; he does not fiill. Erect and grim as 
Fate he stood, his teeth clenched. He raised his pistol. Overton 
glanced at Dickinson. Amazed at the unwonted failure of his aim, 
and apparently appalled at the awful figure and face before him, 
Dickinson had unconsciously recoiled a pace or two. 

" Great God !" he faltered, " have I missed him ?" 

" Back to the mark, sir !" shrieked Overton, with his hand u2J0n 
his pistol. 

Dickinson recovered* his composure, stepped forward to the peg, 
and stood with his eyes averted from his antagonist. All this was 
the work of a moment, though it requires many words to tell it. 



ISOG.] DUEL "WITH CHAKLES DICKINSON. 91 

Goiiernl Jackson took deliberiite aim, and pulled the trigger. The 
pistol neither snapped nor went olF. He looked at the trigger, and 
discovered that it had stopped at half-cock. He drew it back to its 
place, and took aim a second time. He fired. Dickinson's lace 
blanched ; he reeled ; his friends rushed toward him, caught him in 
their arms, and gently seated him on the ground, leaning against 
a bush. His trowsers reddened. They stripped off his clothes. 
The blood was gushing from his side in a torrent. And, here is the 
ball, not near the wound, but above the opposite hip, just under the 
skin. The ball had passed through the body, below the ribs. Such 
a wound could not but be fatal. 

Overton went forwai-d and learned the condition of the wounded 
man. Rejoining his principal, he said, " He won't want any thing 
more of you. General," and conducted him from the ground. They 
had gone a hundred yards, Overton walking on one side of Jack- 
son, the surgeon on the other, and neither speaking a word, when 
the surgeon observed that one of Jackson's' shoes was full of 
blood. 

'< My God ! General Jackson, are you hit ?" he exclaimed, point- 
ing to the blood. 

" Oh ! I believe," replied Jackson, " that he has phiked me a 
little. Let's look at it. But say nothing about it there,'"' poiutmg 
to the house. 

He Opened his coat. Dickinson's aim had been perfect. He 
had sent the ball precisely where he supposed Jackson's heart vs^as 
beating. But the thinness of his body and the looseness of his 
coat combining to deceive Dickinson, the ball had only broken a rrb 
or two, and raked the breast-bone. It was a someM'hat painful, 
bad-looking wound, but neither severe nor dangerous, and he was 
able to ride to the tavern without much inconvenience. Upon ap- 
proaching the house, he Avent up to one of the negro women who 
Avas churning, and asked her if the butter had come. She said it 
was just commg. He asked for some buttermilk. While she was 
getting it for him, she observed him furtively open his coat and 
look within it. She saw that his shirt was soaked with blood, and 
she stood gazing in blank horror at the sight, dipper in hand. He 
caught her eye, and hastily buttoned his coat again. She dipped 
out a quart measure full of buttermilk, and. gave it to him. He 
drank it off at a draught ; then went in, took off his coat, and had 



92 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1806. 

his wound carefully examined and dressed. That done, he dis- 
patched one of his retinue to Dr. Catlett, to inquire respecting the 
condition of Dickinson, and to say that the surgeon attending him- 
self would be glad to contribute his aid toward Mr. Dickinson's 
relief Polite rej)ly was returned that Mr. Dickinson's case was 
past surgei'v. In the course of the day, General Jackson sent a 
bottle of wine to Dr. Catlett for the use of his patient. 

But there was one gratification which Jackson could not, even 
in such circumstances, grant him. A very old friend of General 
Jackson writes to me thus: "Although the general had been 
Avounded, he did not desire it should be known until he had left 
the neighborhood, and had therefore concealed it at first from his 
own friends. His reason for this, as he once stated to me, was, 
that as Dickinson considered himself the best shot in the world, 
and was certain of killing him at the first fire, he did not loant him 
to have the gratification even of hnowing that he had touched him. ^'' 

Poor Dickinson bled to death. The flowing of blood was stanched, 
but could not be stojjped. He was conveyed to the house in which 
he had passed the night, and placed upon a mattrass, which was 
soon drenched with blood. He sufiered extreme agony, and uttered 
horrible cries all that long day. At nine o'clock in the evening he 
suddenly asked why they had put out the lights. The doctor knew 
then that the end was at hand ; that the wife, who had been sent 
for in the morning, would not arrive in time to close her husband's 
eyes. He died five minutes after, cursing, it is said, with his last 
breath, the ball that had entered his body. The poor wife hurried 
away on hearing that her husband was " dangerously wounded," 
and met, as she rode toward the scene of the duel, a procession of 
silent horsemen escorting a rough emigrant wagon that contained 
her husband's remains. 

The news created in Nashville the most profound sensation. " On 
Tuesday evening (afternoon) last," said the Impartial JRevieio of 
the following week, " the remains of Mr. Charles Dickinson were 
committed to the grave, at the residence of Mr, Joseph Ervin, at- 
tended by a large number of citizens of Nashville and its neighbor- 
hood. There have been few occasions on which stronger impres- 
sions of sorrow or testimonies of greater respect were evinced than 
on the one we have the unwelcome task to record. In the prime of 
life, and blessed in domestic circumstances with almost every valu- 



180G.J DUEL WITH CHARLES DIG KINS OK, 93 

able enjoyment, he fell a victim to tlie barbarous and pernicious, 
practice of dueling. By his untimely fate the community is deprived 
of an amiable man and a virtuous citizen. His friends will long la- 
ment with particular sensibility the deplorable event. Mr. Dickin- 
son was a native of Maryland, where he was highly valued by the 
discriminating and good ; and those who knew him best respected 
him most. With a consort that has to bear with this, the severest 
of afflictions, and an infmt child, his friends and acquaintances will 
cordially sympathize. Their loss is above calculation. May Heaven 
assuage their anguish by administering such consolations as are be- 
yond the power of human accident or change." 

But the matter did not rest here. Charles Dickinson had many 
friends in Nashville, and Andrew Jackson many enemies. -The 
events preceding, and the circumstances attending the duel, were 
such as to excite horror and disgust in many minds. An informal 
meeting of citizens was held, who could hit upon no better way of 
exj^ressing their feelings than sendhig the following memorial to the 
proprietors of the Impartial Hevieto : — " The subscribers, citizens 
of Nashville and its vicinity, respectfully request Mr. Bradford and 
Mr. Eastin to put the next number of their 23ai)er in mourning as a 
tribute of respect for the memory, and regret for the untimely death 
of Mr. Charles Dickinson." 

Seventy-three names, many of which Avere of the highest respect- 
ability, were appended to this document. Mr. Eastin had no hesi- 
tation in promising to comply with the request. 

Upon his couch at the Hermitage General Jackson heard of this 
movement. With his usual promptitude he dispatched to the editor 
the following letter : — Mr. Eastix : — I am informed that at the re- 
quest of sundry citizens of Nashville and vicinity, you are about to 
dress your paper hi mourning ' as a tribute of respect for the mem- 
ory and regret for the untimely death of Charles Dickinson.' Your 
paper is the public vehicle, and is always taken as the public will, 
unless the contrary appears. Presuminf/ that tJie puhlic is not in 
mour)iing for this event, in justice to that public, it is only fair and 
right to set forth the names of those citizens who have made the 
request. The thing is so novel that names ought to appear that the 
public might judge whetlier the true motives of the signers were 'a 
tribute of respect for the deceased,' or something else that at first 
sight does not appear." 



94 LITE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1806. 

The editor, with equal complaisance and ingenuity, contrived to 
oblige all parties. He placed his paper in mourning, he published 
the memorial, he published General Jackson's letter, and he added 
to the whole the following remarks : " In answer to the request of 
General Jacksoi], I can only observe that, previously, the request 
of some of the citizens of Nashville and its vicinity had been put to 
type, and as soon as it had transpired that the above request had 
been made, a number of the subscribers, to the amount of twenty- 
six, called and erased their names. Always willing to support, by 
ray acts, the title of my paper — always willing to attend to the re- 
quest of any portion of our citizens when they will take the respon- 
sibility on themselves, induced me to comply with the petition of 
those requesting citizens, and place my paper in mourning. Impar- 
tiality induces me also to attend to the request of General Jackson." 

A week or two later. Captain Ervin, the father-in-law of the un- 
fortunate Dickinson, published a brief recapitulation of the quarrel 
from the beginning, incorporating with his article a final statenient 
by Mr. Thomas Swann. Swann exculpated Dickinson wholly. " I 
do avow," said he, " that neither Mr. Dickinson nor any other per- 
son urged me forward to quarrel with Jackson." He asserted in 
the most solemn manner that every thing had occurred just as in 
the published correspondence and affidavits it had appeared to oc- 
cur. He admitted, however, that there was enmity between Jack- 
son and Dickinson before his own quarrel with Jackson began. 

General Jackson's wound proved to be more severe and trouble- 
some than Avas at first anticipated. It was nearly a montl^ before 
he could move about without inconvenience, and when the wound 
healed, it healed falsely ; that is, some of the viscera were slightly 
displaced, and so remained. Twenty years after, this forgotten 
wound forced itself upon his remembrance, and kept itself there for 
many a year. It was Dickinson's bullet that killed Andrew Jack- 
son at last. 

The reader is now in possession of all the attainable information 
which could assist him in forming a judgment of this sad, this de- 
plorable, this shocking, this wicked afiair. Unfortunately, the evi- 
dence w^iich makes against Jackson is indubitable, Avhile the exten- 
uating circumstances rest upon tradition only. It is evident that he 
was deeply imbittcred against Dickinson befoi-e the affiiir with SAvann 
began. No man is coinpetent to pronounce decisively upon Jack- 



1 800.] G E N E U A L JACKSON AT HOME. 95 

son's conduct in this business, who does not know precisely and 
completely the cause of that original enmity. A very slight ohser- 
vatiou of life is sufficient to show that the party most injured is the 
one that often appears to be most in the wrong. A chronic grind- 
ing wrong extorts, at length, the wrathful word or the avenging 
blow. The bystander hears the imprecation, sees the stroke, and 
knowing nothing that has gone before, condemns the victim and 
pities the guilty. That Jackson was singularly morbid upon the 
subject of his peculiar marriage, we shall often observe. 

It is not true, as has been alleged, that this duel did not aifect 
General Jackson's jjopularity in Tennessee. It followed quick upon 
his feud with Governor Sevier ; and both quarrels told against him 
in many quarters of the state. And though there were large num- 
bers whom the nerve and courage which he had displayed in the 
duel blinded to all considerations of civilization and morality, yet 
it is certain that at no time between the years 1806 and 1812, could 
General Jackson have been elected to any office in Tennessee that 
required a majority of the voters of the whole state. Almost any 
well-informed Tennesseean, old enough to remember those years, 
will support me in this assertion. Beyond the circle of his own 
friends, which was large, there existed a very general impression 
that he was a violent, arbitrary, overbearing, passionate man. 



CHAPTER XI. 

GENERAL JACKSON AT HOME. 

Between the fighting of this bloody duel and the beginning of 
the war of 1812, there is not much to relate of the public life of 
General Jackson. A few incidents and anecdotes of his private life 
may detain us a moment from the stirring scenes of his military 
career. 

He removed, as we have before related, from Hunter's Hill, about 
the year 1804, to the adjoining estate, which he named the Hermit- 
age. The spacious mansion now standing on that estate, in which 
he resided during the last twenty-five years of his life, was not built 



"i^^ 



9() LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1806. 

until al)out the year 1819. A square, two story block-house was 
General Jackson's first dwelling-place on the Hermitage farm. 
This house, like many others of its class, contained three rooms ^, 
one on the ground-floor, and two up-stairs. To this house was 
soon addel a smaller one, which stood about twenty feet from the 
principal structure, and was connected with it by a covered passage. 
This was General Jackson's establishment from 1804 to 1819. 
These houses are still standing at the Hermitage, though not so 
close together as they Avere formerly. The larger block-house 
stands where it stood when occuj^ied by General Jackson ; but has 
been cut down into a one-story house, and used for the last thirty 
years as a negro cabin. It does not differ, in any respect, from the 
oi'dinary block negro cabins of the South. The interior, never ceiled, 
is now as black as ebony with the smoke of sixty years. There is 
the usual trap-door in the middle of the floor for the convenience 
of stowage under the house, for cellar there is none. There is the 
usual vast fireplace, capable of a cord of wood ; from which Jack- 
son went forth to the wars, haggard and anxious ; to which he 
returned, still haggard, but with the light of victory in his face. 
The smaller house has been drawn up near the present Hermitage ; 
where it also serves as a negro cabin, and shows its ring of little 
ebony faces round the generous fire as the stranger peeps in. The 
building which formerly connected these two stands near by, and 
is used as a storehouse. "There is nothing but plunder in it," ex- 
plained one of the negro women. 

In an establishment so restricted, General Jackson and his good- 
hearted wife continued to dispense a most generous hospitality. A 
lady of Nashville tells me that she has often been at the Hermitage 
in those simple old times, when there was in each of the four avail- 
able rooms, not a guest merely, bixt Vi family ; while the young men 
and solitary travelers who chanced to drop in disposed of them- 
selves on the piazza, or any other half shelter about the house. 
" Put down in your book," said one of General Jackson's oldest 
neighbors, " that the general was the jsrince of hospitality ; not be- 
cause he entertained a great many people ; but because the poor, be- 
lated peddler, was as welcome as the president of the United States, 
and made so much at his ease that he felt as though he had got home." 

May 29th, 1805, Colonel Burr, then making his first tour of the 
western country, visited the thriving frontier town of Nashville. 



1806.] GENERAL JACKSON AT HOME. 97 

Throughout the West, Burr was received as the great man, and 
nowhere with such distinction as at Nashville. People poured in 
frOTi the adjacent country to see and Avelcome so renowned a per- 
sonage. Flags, cannons, and martial music contributed to the eclat 
of his reception. An extemporized but superabundant dinner con- 
cluded the ceremonies, in the course of which Burr addressed the 
multitude with the serious grace that usually marked his demeanor 
in public. Could Jackson be absent from such an ovation — Jack- 
son, who had been with the great man in Congress, and worked in 
concert with him for Tennessee ? Impossible! On the morning of 
this bright day General Jackson mounted one of his finest horses, 
and rode to Nashville attended by a servant leading a milk-white 
mare. In the course of the dinner General Jackson gave a toast : 
" Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute ;" and Avhen 
Colonel Burr retired from the apartment, General Overton proposed 
his health to the company. General Jackson returned home at the 
close of the day accompanied by Colonel Burr, who was to be his 
guest during his stay in that vicinity. Burr remained only five days 
at the Hermitage, but promised to make a longer visit on his return. 
In the hasty outline of a journal which he kept for the amusement 
of his daughter, he made this entry concerning his first visit to 
Nashville : — " Arrived at Nashville on the 29th of May. One is 
astonished at the number of sensible, well-informed and well-behaved 
people found here. I have been received with much hospitality and 
kindness, and could stay a month with pleasure ; but General Andrew 
Jackson having provided us a boat, we shall set off on Sunday, the 2d 
of June, to navigate down the Cumberland, either to Smithland, at its 
mouth, or to Eddyville, sixty or eighty miles above ; at one of which 
places we expect to find our boat, with which we intend to make a 
rapid voyage down the Mississippi to Natchez and Orleans. Left 
Nashville, on the 3d of June, in an open boat." 

August the 6th, 1805, Burr visited the Hermitage again, on his 
return from New Orleans, as he had promised. Of this visit, which 
lasted eight days, we have no knowledge except that derived from 
Burr's too brief diary : — " Arrived at Nashville on the 6th August. 
For a week I have been lounging at the house of General Jackson, 
once a lawyer, after a judge, now a planter ; a man of intelligence, 
and one of those prompt, frank, ardent souls whom I love to meet. 
The general has no children, but two lovely nieces made a visit of 
5 



98 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1806. 

some days, contributed greatly to my amusement, and have cured 
me of all the evils of my wilderness jaunt. If I had time I would 
describe to you these two girls, for they deserve it. To-morrow I 
move on toward Lexington." 

There is no doubt as to the topic upon which Colonel Burr and Gen- 
eral JacksQn chiefly conversed on this occasion. There Avas but one 
topic then in the western country — the threatened war with Spain. 

Antipathy to Spaniards had been for twenty years a ruling pas- 
sion with that portion of the western people whose prosperity 
depended upon their possessing free access to the mouth of the Mis- 
sissippi. The Spanish authorities on the great river comported them- 
selves so as to keep alive this ill feeling. They were arrogant, mean, 
and dishonest. A long course of irritating behavior had, at length, 
brought Spain and the United States to the verge of war. The 
whole country expected it. The West longed for it. And, perhaps, 
no man then residing in the valley of the Mississippi looked forward 
to it with such intensity of desire as Andrew Jackson. No news 
would have been more welcome at the Hermitage than that General 
Wilkinson had marched into Texas and begun war. Meanwhile, 
between Burr and Jackson, as between every other two men that 
found themselves together, the question was still renewed : Shall we 
have war with Spain ? 

Colonel Burr returned to the East. Months passed during which 
Jackson and Burr occasionally corresponded. 

In September, 1 806, three months after the duel with Dickinson, 
Colonel Burr was again the guest of General Jackson. On this 
occasion he had brought to the western country, and left on Blen- 
nerhasset Island, his daughter, Theodosia ; intending never again 
to return to the easteni states. He was in the full tide of prepara- 
tion for descending to the lower country. The morning after his 
arrival at the Hermitage, General Jackson, on hospitable thoughts 
intent, wrote to a friend in Nashville the following note : — " Colonel 
Burr is with me ; he arrived last night. I would be happy if you 
would call and see the colonel before you return. Say to General 
O. that I shall expect to see him here on to-morrow with you. 
Would it not be well for us to do something as a mark of attention 
to the colonel ? He has always and is still a true and trusty friend 
to Tennessee. If General Robertson is with you when you receive 
this, be good enough to say tQ him that Colonel Burr is in the 



1806.] GENERAL JACKSON AT IIOAIE. 99 

country. I know that General Robertson will be happy in joining 
in anything that will tend to show a mark of respect to this worthy 
visitant." 

The note produced all the effects desired. General Robertson, 
General Overton, Major W. P. Anderson, and many others of the 
leading men at Nashville, rode ont to the Hermitage to pay their 
respects to Colonel Burr, and to invite him to their houses. To 
private attentions was added the honor of an invitation to a public 
ball. Already, however, some rumors were afloat, attributing to 
Burr unlawful designs ; and there were not wanting those who 
questioned the propriety of this invitation. But the popularity of 
Burr and the influence of General Jackson prevailed, and the invita- 
tion was given. There are still a few persons living at Nashville 
who remember this famous ball ; remember the hush and thrill 
attending the entrance of Colonel Burr, accompanied by General 
Jackson in the uniform of a major-general ; and how the company 
lined the sides of the room, and looked intensely on while the two 
courtliest men in the world made the circuit of the apartment, 
General Jackson introducing his guest with singular grace and 
emphasis. It was a question with the ladies which of the two was 
the finer gentleman. 

After a stay of a few days, Colonel Burr left Tennessee to take up 
the threads of his enterprise in Kentucky and Ohio. 

October passed by. On the 3d of November, General Jackson, 
in his character of business man, received from Burr some important 
orders ; one for the building, on Stone's River at Clover Bottoih, of 
five large boats, such as were then used for descending the westei'n 
rivers, and another for the gradual purchase of a large quantity of 
provisions for transportation in those boats. A sum of money, in 
Kentucky bank-notes, amounting to three thousand five hundred 
dollars, accompanied the orders. General Jackson, nothing doubting, 
and never reluctant to do business, took Burr's letter of directions 
and the money to his partner, John Coffee, and requested him to 
contract at once for the boats, and prepare for the purchase of the 
provisions. Coffee proceeded forthwith to transact the business. I 
notice, also, that Patton Anderson, one of Jackson's special intimates, 
was all activity in raising a company of yonng men to accompany 
Burr down the river. I observe, too, that Anderson's expenses 
were paid out of the money sent by Burr to Jackson; at least in 



100 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1806. 

the account rendered to Burr by Jackson and Coffee at the final 
settlement, there is an item of seven hundred dollars cash paid to 
Anderson. Anderson succeeded in getting seventy-five young men 
to enlist in his company. 

What with the mustering of recruits, the building of boats and 
the accumulation of provisions, Clover Bottom — so silent and 
deserted now, its old wooden bridge across the deep ravine of a 
river seldom thundering under a vehicle, Jackson's old store stand- 
ing lone and desolate in a field — must have presented a lively scene 
in the autumn of 1806. 

It was not until the 10th of November, a week after the receipt 
'of Burr's orders and money, that General Jackson, according to his 
own account, began to think there might be some truth in the re- 
ports which attributed to Burr unlawful designs ; reports which he 
had previously regarded only as new evidences of the malice of 
Burr's political enemies and his own. 

To Jackson, as to all others in Nashville, Burr had represented 
that his first object was the settlement of a great tract of land on 
the Washita river ; but that, if war broke out between Spain and 
the United States, it was his intention to head an expedition into 
Texas and Mexico. For his own part, he said, he had little doubt 
that war was impending ; it might be expected at any moment ; it 
might already have began. The administration, he would insinu- 
ate, knew perfectly well where he was, what he was doing and 
what he intended, though, for reasons of policy, they would not 
yet sufier their hand to appear. He said nothing about the means 
he had emiAoy ed to j^recijntate the war; nothing of Samuel Swart- 
wout's secret mission to General Wilkinson's camp ; nothing of the 
letters in cipher designed to act upon V/ilkinson's cupidity and 
fears ; nothing, in fact, of any part of his plans that could excite 
distrust in the minds of these honest and patriotic pioneers. 

But about the 10th of November, while General Jackson and his 
partners were full of Burr's business, a friend of Jackson's visited 
the Hermitage, who succeeded in convincing him that some gigantic 
scheme of iniquity was on foot in the United States ; a conspiracy 
for "the dismemberment of the Union ; and that it was possible, 
nay, almost probable, that Colonel Burr's extensive preparations 
of boats, provisions and men had some connection with this nefari- 
ous plan. 



1806.] GENERAL JACKSON AT HOME. 101 

He took the proper measures without loss of time. He told 
Coftee that the boats contracted for and begun must be finished, 
and the provisions bought must bepaid for ; but that no new trans- 
action must be entered into by their firm for Aaron Burr imtil 
these suspicions were completely removed. He wrote to Burr, 
acquainting him Avith wliat he had heard, and demanding to know 
the truth. Having been informed by his friend that New Orleans 
was the preliminary object of the conspirators, he wrote a warning 
letter to AVilliam C. C. Claiborne, the governor of the Orleans 
territory ; he Avrote a letter to President JeiFersou, offering the 
services of his division of militia. 

To other friends and ofiicials he communicated his suspicions with- 
out reserve ; particularly to General Overton and General Robertson. 

A month went by ; dviring which occurred Burr's arrest in Ken- 
tucky, his defence by Henry Clay, and his triumphant acquittal. 
December 14th Burr was once more in ISTashville, intending there 
to load his boats, and dropdown the Cumberland to its mouth, 
where he was to meet his flotilla from Blennerhasset Island. 
Thence they were all to float down together to Natchez — to Wil- 
kinson — to Texas — to the halls of the Montezumas — to the throne 
of Spanish America — to an empire bounded, if bounded at all, by 
the limits of the valley of the IVIississippi ; New Orleans its capital, 
Aaron the First its emperor, the brilliant Theodosia and her boy to 
succeed him ! 

Colonel Burr called at the Hermitage ; its master was absent. He 
found Mrs. Jackson cool and constrained. Returning to Clover 
Bottom he mentioned this unwonted coolness to Coffee, and asked 
him the reason of it. Coffee explained. ''At Clover Bottom," 
says Cofiee, in a formal statement of these aftairs, " tliere was a 
tavern ; and to this place Colonel Burr came and remained about a 
week, untilhehadgot everything iu readiness for his departure down 
the river. On his first arrival General Jackson was absent from 
home ; having returned within a few days afterward, the general 
came, in company with General Overton, to the Clover Bottom, 
where Colonel Burr resided. An interview took place between them 
and Colonel Burr, at Vv'hich ihey informed him of the suspicions and 
distrust that were entertained against him.. Burr repelled them, 
and expressed deep regret that there should be any such ; and re- 
marked, that lie could and would be able to satisfy every dispassion- 



102 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1806. 

ate mind, that his views and objects Avere friendly to the government, 
and such as he had represented them to be." 

On the 22d of December, in two unarmed boats, Burr and his 
few followers left Clover Bottom. He had not been gone many- 
hours before the President's proclanuition denouncing him reached 
Nashville, and threw that peaceful town, and all the country round 
about, into a delirium of excitement. Burr was immediately burnt 
in effigy in the public square. There was contention Avhich man 
should surpass all others in the fury of his patriotic zeal. 

It fell to the lot of General Jackson, as commanding officer of mi- 
litia, to take the lead in the measures designed to procure the arrest 
of Burr and his confederates. The general made great exertions 
to accomplish this object, but Burr had gone beyond pursuit. It 
was widely believed at the time that General Jackson was in- 
volved in the unla\vful part of Burr's schemes, but there was not the 
slightest ground for such a belief, and nothing can he more complete 
than the chain of testimony that establishes his innocence. Indeed, 
General Jackson was fir from believing that Burr had any unlaw- 
ful schemes. A few months later we find him at Richmond, 
whither he had been summoned as a witness in the trial of Burr. 
There he harangued the 'crowd in the Capitol square, defending 
Burr, and angrily denouncing Jefferson as a persecutor. There are 
those living who heard him do this. He made himself so conspicu- 
ous as Burr's champion at Richmond, that Mr. Madison, the secre- 
tary of state, took offense at it, and remembered it to Jackson's 
disadvantage five years later, Avheu he was president of the United 
States, with a war on his hands. For the same reason, I presume, 
it was that Jackson was not called upon to give testimony upon 
the trial. Burr, it seems, was equally satisfied with Jackson. Bleu- 
nerhasset, in that part of his diary which records his prison inter- 
views with Burr, says: " \Ye passed to the topics of our late adven- 
tures on the Mississippi, in which Burr said little, but declared he 
did not know of any reason to blame General Jackson, of Tennes- 
see, for any thing he had done or omitted. But he declares he will 
not lose a day after the favorable issue at the capitol (his acquittal), 
( f which he has no doubt, to direct his entire attention to setting up 
his projects (which have only been suspended) on a better model, 
'in which work,' he says, 'he has even here made some progress.' " 
Jackson, on his j)art, went all lengths in defense of Burr ; nor 



1806.] GENERAL JACKSON AT HOME. 103 

was it possible for him to support any man in any other way. To- 
ward Wilkinson, whom he regarded as the betrayer of Bm-r, his 
anger burned with such fury that if the two men had met in a 
place convenient, the meeting could hardly have had any other re- 
sult than a — " difficulty." An incident which actually did occur at 
Richmond, during tlie trial, suggested this remark. Samuel Swart- 
wout, Burr's confidential secretary, aid-de-camp, embassador, and 
factotum, was walking, one day, in a street of Richmond, of which 
the pavement was too narrow to admit of the convenient passing of 
two persons. What should he encounter there but the portly per- 
son of General James Wilkinson ! Swartwout not only refused to 
give way to the general, but, on finding himself in close proximity 
to him, fell into a paroxysm of disgust and rage, and shouldered 
the great Wilkinson into the middle of the street. Jackson was 
wild with delight when he heard of it. There Avas no man out of 
his own circle of Tennessee friends, that General Jackson was more 
aftectionately devoted to than he was to Samuel Swartwout ; and 
this peculiar fondness, sustained as it was by Mr. Swartwout's Aviu- 
ning cast of character, dated from that jyush. A lucky push it 
proved for Swartwout twenty years after. 

The Hermitage Avas more a hermitage than ever after these 
events. The enemies of the Hermit had gained a certain triumph 
over him. I obserA'^e in the list of those who assisted in the burn- 
ing of Burr's effigy at Nashville, the name of Thomas Swann ; which 
faA'ors the conjecture that the zeal against Burr was, in some de- 
gree, a manifestation of enmity to the man avIio had been so con- 
spicuously his friend. Ill-affected toward his former political asso- 
ciates, an object of distrust or aA'ersion, or both, to the administra- 
tion, his home enemies coAved, perhaps, by the late duel, but in no 
degree conciliated, General Jackson now withdrcAV from commercial 
business, and devoted himself exclusively to the affairs of his fine 
plantation ; happy in a vocation of Avhich he Avas master, and which 
kept him ahvays Avhere alone he Avas ever contented — at home. 

He had, as we have said, a very happy home. Mrs. Jackson, be- 
sides being an excellent manager and mistress, Avas also a kmd and 
jovial soul. She had a Avonderful memory, which contained a great 
store of anecdotes and tales. She could remember the Cumberland 
settlements from their inlancy ; had shared the perils of her fiither's 
iamous river voyage ; had lived through that eventful period Avhen 



104 LIF.E OF ANDRE AV JACKSON. [1810. 

the day was exceptional in which there was no alarm, and the week 
fortunate when no one was slain by Indians ; had heard her father, 
and his friend, Daniel Boone, and the otlier heroes of the wilder- 
ness, recount their adventures and escapes. All these things it was 
her delight to tell to the younger guests of the Hermitage, whose 
delight it was to hear her. Nor was she so entirely illiterate as 
has been alleged. I have nine of her letters in my collection, one 
of which is eight foolscap pages long. The spelling of these epistles 
is bad, 01 course, and the grammar not faultless ; but their exist- 
ence is at least sufficient to refute a common opinion in Tennessee, 
that Mrs. Jackson could not write. Unlear-ned, however, she was, 
in the lore of the schools, though not so in that of the woods, the 
dairy, the kitchen and the cabin. 

Children only were wanting to complete their home. But chil- 
dren were denie d them ; a sore grief to both, for both loved children, 
and desired ever to have them in their house. The circle of Mrs. 
Jackson's relatives was so extensive that some of her young nephews 
and nieces were almost always at the Hermitage ; and all her rela- 
tives were his. He counted it among the chief circumstances of 
his happiness that, separated as he was from his own kindred by 
distance, he found in hers all that his heart and home required. 

About the year 1809 it chanced that twins were born to one of 
Mrs. Jackson's brothers, Savern Donelson. The mother, not in 
perfect health, was scarcely able to sustain both these new comers. 
Mrs. Jackson, partly to relieve her sister, and partly with the wish 
to provide a son and heir for her husband, took one of the infants, 
when it was but a few days old, home to the Hermitage. The 
general soon became extremely fond of the boy, gave him his own 
name, adopted him, and treated him thenceforth, to the last hour of 
his life, not as a son merely, but as an only son. This boy is the 
•present Andrew Jackson, Esq., of Louisiana, inheritor of the gen- 
eral's estate and name, master of the Hermitage until it recently 
became the property of the state of Tennessee. 

A few years later another little nephew of Mrs. Jackson s, the 
well-known Andrew Jackson Donelson, became an inmate of the 
Hermitage, and was educated by General Jackson. The visitor 
then could often see the general seated in his rocking-chair, with a 
chubby boy Avedged in on each side of him, and a third, perhaps, 
in his lap, while he was trying to read the newspaper. This man, 



1810.] GENERAL JACKSON AT HOME., 105 

SO irascible sometimes, and sometimes so savage, was never so much 
as impatient with chiklren, wife or servants. This was very re- 
markable. It used to astonish people who came for the first time 
to the Hermitage to find that its master, of whose fierce ways and 
words they had heard so much, was, indeed, the gentlest and ten- 
derest of men. They discovered, in fact, that there were two Jack- 
sons : Jackson militant and Jackson triumphant ; Jackson crosseJ 
and Jackson having his own way ; Jackson, his mastership unques- 
tioned, and Jackson with a rival near the throne. 

That curious tobacco-box story, still often told in Tennessee, and 
probably founded in truth, if not wholly true, illustrates this trait. 
The incident occurred at Clover Bottom, on the great day of the 
races, when the ground was crowded with men and horses. It 
was customary for the landlord of the tavern there to prepare a 
table in the open air, two hundred feet long, for the accommoda- 
tion of the multitude attending. On the day alluded to, several 
races having been run, there Avas a pause for dinner, which pause 
was duly improved. The long table was full of eager diners ; Gen- 
oral Jackson presiding at one end ; a large number of men stand- 
ing along the sides of the table waiting for a chance to sit down ; 
and all the negroes of the neighborhood employed as waiters who 
could look at a plate without its breaking itself. A roaring tor- 
nado of horse-talk half drowned the mighty clatter of knives and 
forks. After the dinner had proceeded awhile, it was observed by 
General Jackson and those who sat near him, that something was 
the matter near the other end of the table — a fight, probably. 
There was a rushing together of men, and evident excitement. 
Now, " difiiculties" of this kind were so common at that day, 
whenever large numbers of men were gathered together, that the 
disturbance was little more than mentioned, if alluded to at all, at 
Jackson's end of the table, where sat the magnates of the race. 
At length, some one, in passing by, was heard to say, in evident 
allusion to the difficulty : 

"They'll finish Patten Anderson this time, I do expect." 
The whole truth flashed upon Jackson, and he sprang ujd like a 
man galvanized. How to get to the instant rescue of his friend ! 
To force a path through the crowd along the sides of the table 
would have taken time. A moment later and the tall general 
might have been seen striding toward the scene of danger on the 
5* 



106 %LIFIi OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1812. 

top of the tahle^ wading through the dishes, and causing hungry- 
men to pause astounded, with morsels suspended in air. As he 
neared the crowd, putting his hand behind him into his coat pocket 
— an ominous movement in those days, and susceptible of but one 
interpretation — he opened his tobacco-box, and shut it with a click 
so loud that it was heard by some of the bystanders. 

"I'm coming, Patten!" roared the general. 

" Don't fire," cried some of the spectators. 

The cry of donHjire caught the ears of the hostile crowd, who 
looked up, and saw a mad Colossus striding toward them, with his 
right hand behind him, and slaughter depicted in every lineament 
of his countenance. They scattered instantaneo\isly, leaving An- 
derson alone and unharmed ! 



CHAPTER XII. 

GENERAL JACKSON IN SERYICE. 

At the beginning of the war of 1812, there was not a militia 
general in the western country less likely to receive a commission 
from the general government than Andrew Jackson. There were 
unpleasant traditions and recollections connected Avith his name in 
Mr. Madison's cabinet, as we know. Mr. Madison had not forgot- 
ten how General Jackson had mounted the stump in Richmond, 
and denounced the last administration, of which himself was pre- 
mier, for its " persecution" of Aaron Burr. Still less could he have 
forgotten that when it was still an open question who should suc- 
ceed Mr. Jefferson, General Jackson had given his voice for James 
Monroe, instead of James Madison. 

There were those, however, who were strongly convinced that 
General Jackson was the very man, of all who lived in the A^alley 
of the Mississippi, to be intrusted with its defense. Aaron Bm"r 
tliought so for one. He had just returned to New York, after his 
four years' exile, when the war broke out. " There was in Con- 
gress with me," says Mr. C. J. Ingersoll, " a member from New 
York (Dr. Jolm Sage, of Long Island), who said that on his way 



1812.] GENERAL JACKSON IN SERVICE. 107 

home, after voting for tlie declaration of war in the Twelfth Con- 
gress, he met that extraordinary man, Aaron Burr, in the city of New 
York, who conversed freely with him on the subject, particularly 
respecting the gentlemen aj^pointed generals in the army ; not one 
of whom, Burr said, would answer public expectation. Dr. Sage 
told him that the president thought it best, and in fact indispensa- 
ble, to select those with some militaiy character from service in the 
Revolution. I know, said Colonel Burr, that my word is not worth 
much with Madison ; but you may tell him from me that there is 
an unknown man in the West, named Andrew Jackson, who will 
do credit to a commission in the army if conferred on him. This 
remarkable prediction of what was soon verified, and proof of 
Burr's knowledge of the then obscure individual he recommended 
to notice, occurred before General Jackson had, probably, ever 
heard a volley of musket balls, or performed any part to indicate 
his future military distinction." 

Burr uttered this opinion to all his friends at the time. He gave 
it strong expression at the house of Mr. Martin Van Buren, a ris- 
ing man at Albany, who had then scarcely heard the name of An- 
drew Jackson, and was himself little known beyond his own state. 
" I'll tell you why they don't employ Jackson," said Burr ; " it's be- 
cause he is a friend of mine." • 

It was General Jackson's promptitude in tendering his services, 
and the services of kis division, and that alone, which softened the 
i-epugnance of the president and his cabinet. Whatever may have 
been the feelings of the administration toward him, its conduct was 
just and courteous. It accepted him as promptly as he offered him- 
self; employed him the moment there was any thing for him to do ; 
promoted him as soon as he had given fair evidence of capacity ; be- 
stowed upon each of his achievements its due of applause. It could 
have done more, but it was not bound to do more. It could have 
given him a commission at the commencement of hostilities. But 
what had General Jackson done to deserve or invite a distinction 
so marked ? Besides, is it not the fate of all nations (except the 
French) to lose the first campaign of every war, lose a fine army or 
two, squander some millions of money, throw away some thousands 
of lives, tarnish the old honors and lessen the ancient prestige, all 
for the sake of sparing the feelings of certain generals, who have 
proved their unfitness to command to-day by having distlnguislied 



108 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1812. 

themselves in a war of twenty years ago ? Every war develops its 
own hero. 

The war was declared on the 12th of June. Such news is not 
carried, but flies ; and so may have reached Nashville by the 20th. 
On the 25th, General Jackson offered to the President, through 
Governor Blount, his own services and those of twenty-five himdred 
volunteers of his division. A response to the declaration of war so 
timely and practical, could not but have been extremely gratifying 
to an administration (never too confident in itself) that was then 
entering upon a contest to which a powerful minority was opposed ;. 
and with a presidential election only four months distant. Tlie reply 
of the Secretary of War, dated July 11th, was as cordial as a com- 
munication of the kind could be. The President, he said, had 
received the tender of service by General Jackson and the volun- 
teers under his command " with peculiar satisfaction." " In accept- . 
ing their services," added the Secretary, "the President can not 
withhold an expression of his admiration of the zeal and ardor by 
which they are animated." Governor Blount was evidently more 
than satisfied with the result of the offer ; he publicly thanked Gen- 
eral Jackson and the volunteers for the honor they had done the State 
of Tennessee by making it. 

Thus, we find General Jackson's services accepted by the Presi- 
dent before hostilities could have seriously begun. The summer 
passed, howevei*, and the autumn came, and still he was at home 
upon his farm. 

After Hull's failure in Canada, fears were entertained that the 
British would direct their released forces against the ports of the 
Gulf of Mexico, particularly New Orleans, where General James 
Wilkinson still commanded. October 21st, the Governor of Ten- 
nessee was requested to dispatch fifteen hundred of the Tennessee 
troops to thereenforcement of General Wilkinson. November 1st, 
Governor Blount issued the requisite orders to General Jackson, who 
entered at once upon the task of preparing for the descent of the 
river with his volunteers. 

The tenth of December was the day appointed for the troops to 
rendezvous at Nashville. The climate of Tennessee, generally so 
pleasant, is liable to brief periods of severe cold. Twice, within 
the memory of living persons, the Cumberland has been frozen over 
at Nashville • and as often snow has fallen there to the depth of a 



1812.J ' GENERAL JACKSON IN SERVICE. ] 09 

foot. It SO chanced that the day named for the assembling of the 
troops was the coldest that had been known at Nashville for many 
years, and there was deep snow on the ground. Such Avas the en- 
thusiasm, however, of the volunteers, that more than two thousand 
presented themselves on the appointed- day. The general was no 
less puzzled than pleased by this alacrity. Nashville was still little 
more than a large village, not capable of affording the merest shel- 
ter to such a concourse of soldiers ; who, in any weather not extra- 
ordinary, would have disdained a roof. There was no resource for 
the mass of the troops but to camp out. Fortunately, the efficient 
quarter-master, Major William B. Lewis, had provided a thousand 
cords of wood for the use of the men ; a quantity that was suppos- 
ed to be sufficient to last till they embarked. Every stick of the 
wood was burnt the first night in keeping the men from freezing. 
From dark until nearly daylight the general and the quarter-mas- 
ter were out among the troops, employed in providing for this un- 
expected and perilous exigency ; seeing that drunken men were 
brought within reach of a fire, and that no drowsy sentinel slept the 
sleep of death. 

The extreme cold soon passed away, however, and the organiza- 
tion of the troops proceeded. In a few days the little army was in 
readiness ; one regiment of cavalry, commanded by Colonel John 
Coffee, six hundred and seventy in number ; two regiments of in- 
fantry fourteen hundred men in all, one regiment commanded by 
Colonel William Hall, the other by Colonel Thomas H. Benton. 
Major William B. Lewis, the general's neighbor and friend, was 
the quarter-master. William Carroll, a young man from Pennsyl- 
vania, a new favorite of the general's; was the brigade inspector. The 
general's aid and secretary was John Reid, long his companion in 
the field, afterward his biographer. The troops were of the very best 
material the state afforded : planters, business men, their sons and 
grandsons — a large proportion of them descended from revolution- 
ary soldiers who had settled in great numbers in the beautiful val- 
ley of the Cumberland. John Coffee was a host in himself; a plain, 
brave, modest, stalwart man, devoted to his chief, to Tennessee and 
to the Union. He had been recently married to Polly Donelson, 
the daughter of Captain John Donelsoif, who had given them the 
farm on which they lived. 

On the 7th of January, all \va* ready. The infantry embarked, 



110 LIFE or ANDREW JACKSON. [1812. 

and the flotilla dropped down the river. Colonel Coffee and the 
mounted men marched across the country, and were to rejoin the 
general at Natchez. " I have the pleasure to inform you," wrote 
Jackson to the Secretary of War, just before leaving home, " that 
I am now at the head of 2,070 volunteers, the choicest of our citi- 
zens, who go at the call of their country to execute the will of the 
government, who have no constitutional scruples ; and if the gov- 
ernment orders, will rejoice at the opportunity of placing the Amer- 
ican eagle on the ramparts of Mobile, Pensacola, and Fort St. 
Augustine, eifectually banishing from the southern coasts all British 
influence." 

Not yet, general, not yet. Two years later, perhaps. 
Down the Cumberland to the Ohio ; down the Ohio to the Mis- 
sissippi ; down the Mississippi toward New Orleans ; stopping here 
and there for supjolies ; delayed for days at a time by the ice in the 
swift Ohio ; grounding a boat now and then ; losing one altogether ; 
—the fleet pursued its course, crunching through the floating masses, 
but making fair progress, for the space of thirty-nine days. 

The weather was often very cold and tempestuous, and the frail 
boats afibrded only an imperfect shelter. But all the little army, 
from the general to the privates, were in the highest spirits, and 
burned with the desire to do their part in restoring the diminished 
prestige of the American arms ; to atone for the shocking failures of 
the North by making new conquests at the South. On the 15 th of 
February, at dawn of day, they had left a thousand miles of winding 
stream behind them, and saw before them the little town of Natchez. 
The fleet came to. The men were rejoiced to hear that Colonel 
Coffee and his mounted regiment had already arrived in the vicinity. 
Here General Jackson received a disj^atch from General Wilkinson, 
requesting him to halt at Natchez, as neither quarters nor provisions 
were ready for them at New Orleans ; nor had an enemy yet made 
his appearance in the southern waters. Wilkinson added, that he 
had received no orders respecting the Tennesseeans, knew not their 
destination, and should not think of yielding his command, "until 
regularly relieved by superior authority." Jackson assented to the 
j)olicy of remaining at Natchez for further instructions ; but, Avith 
regard to General WilkinSbn's uneasiness on the question of rank, 
he said, in his reply, " I have marched with the true spirit of a sol- 
dier to serve my countiy at any and every point where service can 



1812.] GENEKAL JACKSON IN SERVICE. Ill 

be rendered," and " the detachment under my command shall be 
kept in complete readiness to move to any point at which an enemy 
may appear, at the shortest notice," So, at Natchez, the troops 
disembarked, and, encamping in a jileasant and salubrious place, a 
few miles from the town, passed their days in learning the duties of 
the soldier. 

The month Of February passed away and still the army was in 
camp, employed in nothing more serious than the daily drill. No 
one knew when they were to move, wiiere they were to go, nor 
what they were to do.* The commanding general was not a little 
impatient, and even the more placid Colonel Coifee longed to be in 
action. 

At length, on a Sunday morning, toward the end of March, an 
express from Washington reached the camp, and a letter from 
the war department was placed in the general's hands. We can 
imagine the intensity of feeling with which he tore it open and gath- 
ered its purport, and the fever of excitement which the news of its 
arrival kindled throughout the camp. The communication was 
signed, " J. Armstrong." Eustis, then, was out of office. Yes ; 
he left the department February 4th, and this letter was written by 
tlie new secretary two days after. But its contents ? Was it the 
perusal of this astounding letter that caused the general's hair to 
stand on end, and remain for ever after erect and bristling, unlike 
the quills upon the fretful porcupine ? Fancy, if you can, the de- 
meanor, attitude, countenance, of this fiery and generous soldier, as 
he read, and re-read, with ever-growing wonder and wrath, the fol- 
lowing epistle : — 

"War Depaetment, Feljruary 6, 1813. 

" SiK : — The causes of embodying and marching to Now Orleans the corps under 
jour command having ceased to exist, you will, on the receipt of this letter, con- 
sider it as- dismissed from public service, and take measures to have dehvered over 
to Major-General Wilkinson all tlje articles of public property which may Lave been 
put into its possession. 

'•You win accept for yourself and the corps the thanks of the President of the 
United States 

"I have the honor, etc., 

"J. Armstrong. 

''Major-Gexeral Andrew Jackson." 

Cou'd he believe his eyes? Tismissed? Dismissed where? 



112 I, IFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1812. 

Here ? Five hundred miles li-oni home ? Dismissed without pay, 
without means of transport, witliout provision for the sick ? How 
could he dismiss men so far from home, to whom, on receiving them 
from their parents, he had promised to be a father, and either to 
restore them in honor to their arms, or give them a soldier's burial ? 

His resolution was taken on the instant never to disband his 
troops till he had led them back to the borders of their own state ! 

The very day on which the order arrived, the general issued the 
requisite directions for the preparation of Avagons, provisions and 
ammunition. On the next day, he dispatche'G letters, indignant and 
explanatorj^, to the secretary of war, to Governor Blount, to the 
president, and to General Wilkinson. He attributed the strange 
conduct of the government to eVery cause but the right one — its 
own inexperience, and the difficulty of directing operations at places 
so remote from the seat of government. Armstrong averred that 
he had dispatched the obnoxious order in the confident expectation 
of its reachuig General Jackson before he had gone far from home ; 
as the extreme severity of the winter, he thought, would inevita- 
bly detain the flotilla at the mouth of the Cumberland. There is 
no good reason now to doubt this explanation ; though, at the 
time, it did not look probable. Tiie general thought he saw the 
sly hand of Wilkinson in the business. " You have it still in your 
power," wrote Wilkinson, " to render a most acceptable service to 
our government, by encouraging the recruiting service from the 
patriotic soldiers you command in an appropriate general order." 
Aha ! thought General Hotspur ; it's all a scheme, then, of this in- 
sidious villain to swell his own force with my gallant Tennesseeans. 
But, by the Eternal, 

"I'll keep them all! 
By Heaven ! he shall not have a Scot of them. 
No ; if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not. 
I'll keep them, by this hand!" 

And so he did. When a recruiting officer was detected hanging 
about the camp, the general notified him that if he attempted to 
seduce one of his volunteers into the regular army, he should be 
drummed out of the camp in the presence of the entire corps.- 

At the last moment came the orders of the government (which 
ought to have accompanied the order to disband), dii-ectiug the 



1812.J .GENERAL JACKSON IN SERVICE. 113 

force under General Jackson to be paid off, and allowed pay and 
-rations for the journey home. It was too late. The general was 
resolved, whatever might betide, to conduct the men back to their 
homes, in person, as an organized body. " I sh-all commence the 
line of march," he wrote to Wilkinson, "on Thursday, the 25th. 
Should the contractor not feel himself justified in sending on pro- 
visions for my infantry, or the quarter-master wagons for the trans- 
portation of my sick, I shall dismount the cavalry, carry them on, 
and provide the means for their support out of my private funds. 
If that should fail, I thank my God we have plenty of horses to 
feed my troops to the Tennessee, where I know my country will 
meet me with ample supiDlies, These brave men, at the call of 
their country, voluntarily rallied round its insulted standard. They 
followed me to the field ; I shall carefully march them back to their 
homes. It is for the agents of the government to account to the 
state of Tennessee and the whole world for their singular and unu- 
sual conduct to this detachment." 

It was on this homeward march that the nickname of " Old 
Hickory" was bestowed on the general. From the time of leaving 
Nashville, General Jackson had constantly grown in the confidence 
and affection pf the trooj)s. The man was in his element at last, 
and his great qualities began to make themselves manifest. Many 
of the volunteers had heard so much of his violent and hasty tem- 
per that they had joined the corps with a certain dread and hesita- 
tion, fearing not the enemy, nor the march, nor the diseases of the 
lower country, so much as the swift wrath of their commander. 
Some, indeed, refused»to go for that reason alone. How surprised 
were those who entered the service with such feelings to find in Gen- 
eral Jackson a father as well as a chief! Jackson had the faculty, 
Avhich all successful soldiers possess, of completely identifying him- 
self with the men he commanded ; investing every soldier, as it 
were, with a portion of his own personality, and feeling a wrong 
done to the least of them as done to himself. Soldiers are quick to 
perceive a trait of this kind. They saw, indeed, that there was a 
whole volcano of wrath in their general, but they observed that, to 
the men of his command, so long as they did their duty, and 
longer, he was the most gentle, patient, considerate, and generous 
of friends. 

This resolve of his to disobey his government for their sakes, 



114 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. • [1812. 

and the mannei* in which lie executed that resolve, raised his popu- 
larity to the higliest point. When the little army set out from 
Natchez for a march of fiv^e hundred miles through the wilderness, 
there were a hundred and fifty men on the sick list, of whom fifty- 
six could not raise their heads from the pillow. There were but 
eleven wagons for the conveyance of these. The rest of the sick 
were mounted on the horses of the officers. The general had three 
excellent horses, and gave them all up to the sick men, himself 
trudging along on foot with the brisk pace that was usual with 
him. Day after day he tramped gayly along the miry forest roads, 
never tired, and always ready with a cheering word for the others. 
They marched with extraordinary speed, averaging eighteen miles 
■ a day, and performing the whole journey in less than a month ; 
and yet the sick men rapidly recovered under the reviving influ- 
ences of a homeward march. "Where ami?" asked one young 
fellow who had been lifted to his i:)lace in a wagon when insensible 
and apparently dying. " On your way home V cried the general, 
merrily ; and the young soldier began to improve from that hour, 
and reached home in good health. 

The name of " Old Hickory" was not an instantaneous inspira- 
tion, but a growth. First of all, the remark was made by some 
soldier, who was struck with his commander's pedestrian powers, 
that the general was " tough." Next it was observed of him that 
he was as " tough as hickory." Then he was called Hickory. 
Lastly, the affectionate adjective " old" was pi'efixed, and the gen 
eral thenceforth rejoiced in the completed nickname, usually the 
first-won honor of a great commander. 

On approaching the borders of the state, the general again offered 
his services to the government to aid in, or conduct, a new inva- 
sion of Canada. His force, he said, could be increased, if neces- 
sary ; and he had a few standards wearing the American eagle, 
that he should be happy to place upon the enemy's ramparts. But 
the desired response came not; and so, on the 22d of May, the 
last of his army was drawn up on the public square of Nashville 
waiting only for the word of command to disperse to their homes. 

The trooi>s were dismissed, exulting in their commander, and 
spreading wide the fame of his gallant and graceful conduct. 
" Long will their general live in the memory of the volunteers of 
West Tennessee," said the Nashville Whig, a day or two after the 



1812.] GENERAL JACKSOX IN SERVICE. 115 

troops were disbanded, " for his benevolent, humane, and fatherly- 
treatment to his soldiers ; if gratitude and love can reward him, 
General Jackson has them. It affords us pleasure to say, that we 
believe there is not a man belonging to the detachment but what 
loves him. His fellow-citizens at home are not less pleased with 
his conduct. We fondly hope his merited worth will not be over- 
looked by the government." 

The government, quotha? These events were not regarded at 
Washington in the liglit they were at Xashville. Far from it. The 
" government " came very near making up its mind to let the gen- 
eral hear the responsibilities which he had incurred. Colonel Benton 
says : " We all returned ; were discharged ; disj)ersed among our 
homes, and the fine chance on which we had so much counted was 
all gone. And now came a blow upon Jackson himself — the fruit 
of the moneyed responsibility Avhich he had assumed. His 
transportation drafts were all protested — returned upon him for pay- 
ment, which was impossible, and directions to bring suit. This was 
the month of May. I was coming on to Washington on my own 
accoimt, and cordially took charge of Jackson's case. Suits were 
delayed until the result of his application for relief could be heard. 
I arrived at this city ; Congress was in session — the extra session 
of the spring and summer of 1813. I applied to the members of 
Congress from Tennessee ; they could do nothing. I ai^plied to the 
secretary of war ; he did nothing. 

" Weeks had passed away, and the time for delay was expiring 
at Nashville. Ruin seemed to be^ hovering over the head of Jack- 
son, and I felt the necessity of some decisive movement. I was 
young, then, and had some material in me — perhaps some boldness ; 
and the occasion brought it out. I resolved to take a step, charac- 
terized in the letter which I wrote to the general as ' an ajypeal 
from the justice to the fears of the administration.^ I remember 
the words, though I have never seen the letter since. I drew up a 
memoir, addressed to the secretary of war, representing to him 
that these volunteers were drawn from the bosoms of almost every 
substantial family in Tennessee — that the whole state stood by Jack- 
son in bringing them home — and that the state would be lost to the 
administration if he was left to suffer. It was upon this last argu- 
ment that I relied — all those founded in justice having failed. 

"It was of a Saturday morning, 12th of June, that I carried this 



116 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1813 

memoir to the war office, and delivered it. Monday morning I 
came back early to learn the result of my argument. The secretary 
was not yet in. I spoke to the chief clerk (who was afterward 
Adjutant-General Parker), and inquired if the secretary had left 
any answer for me before he left the office on Saturday. He said no ; 
but that he had put the memoir in his side pocket — the breast- 
pocket — and carried it home with him, saying he would take it for 
his Sunday's consideration. That encouraged me — gave a gleam of 
hope and a feehng of satisfaction. I thought it a good subject for 
his Sunday's meditation. Presently he arrived. I stepjjed in before 
anybody to his office. 

" He told me quickly and kindly that there was much reason in 
what I had said, but that there was no way for him to do it ; that 
Congress would haveto give the relief. I answered him that I thought 
thei'e was a way for him to do it ; it was to give an order to General 
Wilkinson, quarter-master general in the southern department, to pay 
for so much transportation as General Jackson's command would 
have been entitled to if it had returned under regular orders. Upon 
the instant he took up a pen, wrote down the very words I had 
spoken, directed a clerk to put them into form ; and the work was 
done. The order went off immediately, and Jackson was relieved 
from immuient impending ruin, and Tennessee remained firm to the 
administration." 

And so ended this fruitless expedition to Natchez. Fruitless it 
was of immediate military results. It was more productive, how- 
ever, of reputation to the general in command than if it had been, 
in any ordinary degree, successful. It left him a private citizen, 
indeed ; but, for the time, the most beloved and esteemed of private 
citizens in western Tennessee. 



CHAPTER Xin. 

AFFEAY WITH THE BENTONS. 

It was through an act of good nature that General Jackson was 
drawn into this disgraceful business. William Carroll (afterward 
General Carroll), who went down the river with the expedition, v\ 



1813.] AFFRAY WITH THE B E N T O N S . 117 

the capacity of brigade inspector, had but recently come to Nash- 
ville from Pittsburgh, where he kad been a clerk or partner in a hard- 
ware store. lie was a tall, well-formed man, much given to military 
affairs, and thus attracted the notice of General Jackson ; who ad- 
vanced him so rapidly and paid him such marked attentions, as to 
procure for the young stranger a great many enemies. Carroll, 
moreover, was not a genuine son of the wilderness. With all his 
powerful frame and superior stature, there was an expression of 
delicacy in his smooth, fair countenance that found small favor in 
the eyes of the rougher pioneers. Perhaps, too, in those days, there 
was a touch of dandyism in his attire and demeanor. Far. ditierent 
was he from the giant Coffee, man of the mighty arm and massive 
fist, and thundering voice, and face of bronze, and heart of oak ; 
the backwoodsman's beau ideal of a colonel of hunting-shirted dra- 
goons. Enough. Captain William Carroll had his enemies among 
the young officers of General Jackson's division. ^ \. 

At length, the foes of Carroll succeeded in their ofeject so far as 
to embroil the young man with Mr. Jesse Benton,- a brother of 
Colonel Thomas H.- Benton, who was away in Washington, saving 
General Jackson from bankruptcy. Jesse Benton, for many years 
a resident of Nashville, had a good deal of his brother's fire and 
fluency, without much of his talent and discretion. He was a well- 
intentioned, eccentric, excitable man, prone to get himself into awk- 
ward scrapes, and to get out of them aAvkwardly. He challenged 
Carroll. Jlis social standing was such that his challenge could not 
be declined, and Carroll was compelled to prepare for a fight. 

Unable, it is said, to procure a suitable second in Kashville, 
Carroll rode out to the Hermitage, stated his perplexity to General 
Jackson, and asked him to act as his " friend." The general was 
astonished at the proposal. 

" Why, Captain Carroll," said he, " I am not the man for such 
an affair. I am too old. The time has been wJien I should have 
gone out with pleasure ; but, at my time of life, it would be ex- 
tremely injudicious. You must get a man nearer your own 
age." 

Carroll replied that if this had been a quarrel of an ordinary 
nature he would not have asked General Jackson's assistance. 
But it was not an ordinary quarrel. There was a conspiracy, he 
said, among certain young men, to "run him out of the country." 



118 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1813. 

They wanted his commission, and were jealous of his standing with 
General Jackson. 

At the words, " run me out of the country," the general's man- 
ner changed. 

" Well, Carroll," said he, " you may make your mind easy on one 
point : they sha'n't run you out of the country as long as Andrew 
Jackson lives in it. I'll ride with you to Nashville, and inquire 
iilto this business myself." 

Upon inquiry. General Jackson was convinced that Jesse Ben- 
ton's fiery passions had been played upon by the enemies of Carroll 
for their own purposes, and that the challenge of that gentleman 
was something not in the least degree called for by the "laAvs of 
honor." He personally remonstrated with Benton, and, as he 
thought, with good effect. But others gained his ear and confi- 
dence, after the general had returned to the tavern, and the result 
was, that he persisted in fighting. Upon learning this determina- 
tion, General Jackson declared his purpose to stand by his young 
friend, Carroll, and to go with him to the field as his second. 

The incidents of the duel were so ridiculous that they are still a 
standing joke in Tennessee. The men were placed back^to back, 
at the usual distance apart. At the word, they were to wheel and 
fire. The general, on placing his man, said, pointing to Benton, 

" You needn't fear him, Carroll ; he'd never hit you, if you were 
as broad as a barn-door." 

Benton was evidently a little agitated. Indeed, as he afterward 
confessed to his physician, he had not the duelist's nerve, i. e., he 
could not quite conceal a feeling, common to all duelists when they 
are placed, that a man who stands eight or ten paces from the muz- 
zle of a loaded pistol which is about to go off, is in a false position. 

" FiKE !" 

The men wheeled and raised their pistols. Benton fired first, 
and then stooped or crouched, to receive the fire of his antagonist. 
The act of stooping caused a portion of his frame, that was always 
prominent, to be more prominent still. Carroll fired. His ball in- 
flicted a long, raking wound on the part exposed, which would 
have been safe but for the unlucky stoop. Jackson ran up to his 
principal, and asked him if he was hit. " No,'J^said he, " I believe 
not." At that moment, Carroll observed blood on his left hand, 
and found that he had been shot in the thumb. 



# 



1813.] AFFKAY WITH THE BENTONS. H9 

" Oh, yes," he added, " he's liit my thumb." 

" I told you he would not hurt you," said Jackson ; '' and he 
wouldn't have hit you at all if you'd kept your hand at your side, 
where it ought to have been." 

Benton was carried home, and his wound was dressed. He was 
confined to the house for some weeks. 

Meanwhile, Coionel Thomas H. Benton had completed his busi- 
ness at Washington, had sent on to Tennessee the news of his great 
success, and was about to return home, when he heard of this duel, 
and heard, too, that General Jackson had gone to the field, not as 
his brother's friend, but as the second of his brother's antagonist ! 
General Jackson ! whom he had so signally served. Soon came 
wild letters from Jesse, so narrating the afiair as to place the con- 
duct of General Jackson in the worst possible light. Ofiicious friends 
of the Bentons, foes to Jackson and to Carroll, wrote to Colonel 
Benton in a similar strain, adding fuel to the fire of his indignation. 
Benton wrote to Jackson, denouncing his conduct in offensive terms. 
Jackson replied, in effect, that before addressing him in that manner, 
Colonel Benton should have inquired of him, what his conduct really 
had been, not listened to the tales of designing and interested par- 
ties. Benton wrote still more angrily. He said that General Jack- 
son had conducted the duel in a " savage, unequal, unfair, and base 
manner." On his way home through Tennessee, especially at Knox- 
ville, he inveighed bitterly and loudly, in public places, against 
General Jaclison, using language such as angry men did use in the 
western country fifty years ago. Jackson was informed of this. 
Phrases applied by Benton to himself were reported to him by some 
of those parasites and sycophants who made it their business to 
minister to his passions and prejudices ; a class of jjeople from whose 
malign, misleading influence men of intense personahty are seldom 
wholly free. 

Jackson had liked Thomas Benton, and remembered with grati- 
tude his parents, particularly his mother, who had been gracious and 
good to him when he was a " raw lad" in North Carolina. Jack- 
son was, therefore, sincerely unwilling to break with him, and mani- 
fested a degree of forbearance which it is a pity he could not have 
maintained to the end. He took fire at last, threw old friendship to 
the winds, and swore by the Eternal that he would horsewhip Tom 
Benton the first time he met him. 



120 LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1813, 

The vow had gone forth ; a sacred vovr at that day in Tennessee. , 
To all Nashville it was known that General Jackson had promised 
to whip Thomas Benton " on sight," to use Colonel Coffee's com- 
mercial term. Colonel Benton was duly informed of it. Jesse 
Benton, then nearly recovered from his wound, was perfectly aware 
of it. The thing was %,o he done. The only question was. When ? 

Back from Washington came Colonel Benton, biwsting with wrath 
and defiance, yet resolved to preserve the peace, and neither to seek 
nor fly the threatened attack. One measure of precaution, however, 
he did adopt. There were then two taverns on the public square 
of Nashville, both situated near the same angle, their front doors 
being not more than a hundred yards apart. One was the old Nash- 
ville Inn (burnt in 1856 or 1857), at which General Jackson was 
accustomed to put up for more than forty years. There, too, the 
Bentons,- Colonel Cofiee and all of the general's peculiar friends 
were wont to take lodgings whenever they visited the town, and 
to hold pleasant converse over a glass of wine, and to play billiards 
together — a game pursued with fanatical devotion in the early days 
of Nashville. By the side of this old inn was a piece of open 
ground, where cocks were accustomed to display their prowess, and 
tear one another to pieces for the entertainment of some of the citizens. 

On reaching Nashville, Colonel Benton and his brother Jesse did 
not go to their accustomed inn, but stopped at the City Hotel, to 
avoid General Jackson, unless he chose to go out of his,way to seek 
them. This was on the 3d of September. In the evening of the 
same day it came to pass that General Jackson and Colonel Coffee 
rode into town, and put up their horses, as usual, at the Nashville 
Inn. Whether the coming of these portentous gentlemen was in 
consequence of the general's having received, a few hours before, 
an intimation of the arrival of Colonel Benton, is one of those ques- 
tions which must be leftto that already overburdened individual — 
the future historian. Perhaps it Avas true, as Colonel Coffee grin, 
ningly remai-ked, that they had come to get their letters from the 
post-office. They were there — that is the main point — and concluded 
to stop all night. CajDtain Carroll called in the course of the even- 
ing, and told the general that an affair of the most delicate and ten- 
der nature compelled him to leave Nashville at dawn of day. 

" Go, by all means," sai^tke general. " I want no man to fight 
my battles." v'^ '■ \r 



1813.] . AFFRAY WITH THE BENTOTSTS. 121 

The next morning, about nine, Colonel Cofiee proposed to Gen- 
eral Jackson that they should stroll over to the post-office. They 
started. The general carried with him, as he generally did, his 
riding whip. He also Avore a small sword, as all gentlemen once did, 
and as official jjersons were accustomed to do in Tennessee, as late 
as the war of 1812. The post-office was then situated in the public 
square, on the corner of a little alley, just beyond the City Hotel. 
There were therefore, two ways of getting to it froni the Nashville 
Inn. One way was to go straight to it, across the angle of the 
square ; the other, to keep the sidewalk and go round. Our two 
friends took the short cut, walking leisurely along. When they 
were about midway between their inn and the post-office. Colonel 
Coffee, glancing toward the City Hotel, observed Colonel Benton 
standing in the doorway thereof, drawn up to his full hight, and 
looking daggers at them. 

" Do you see that fellow ?" said Coffee to Jackson, in a low tone. 

" Oh, yes," replied Jackson without turning his head, " I have 
my eye on him." 

They continued their walk to the post-office, got their letters, and 
set out on their return. This time, however, they did not take the 
short way across the square, but kept down the sidewalk, which 
led past the front door at which Colonel Benton was posted. As 
they drew near, they observed that Jesse Benton was standing 
before the hotel near his brother. On coming up to where Colonel 
Benton stood, General Jackson suddenly turned toward him, with 
his whip in his" right hand, and, stepping up to him, said, 

" Now, you d — d rascal, I am going to punish you. Defend your- 
self." 

Benton put his hand into his breast pocket and seemed to be 
fumbling for his pistol. As quick as lightning, Jackson drew a pis- 
tol from a pocket behind him, and presented it full ^t his antago- 
nist, who recoiled a pace or two. Jackson advanced upon him. 
Benton continued to step slowly backward, Jackson close upon 
him, with a pistol at his heart, until they had reached the back door 
of the hotel, and were in the act of turning down the back piazza. 
At that moment, just as Jackson was beginning to turn, Jesse Ben- 
ton entered the passage behind the belligerents, and, seeing his 
brother's danger, raised his pistol and fired at Jackson. The pistol 
was loaded with two balls and a y|ge slug. The slug took effect 
6 ^'- 



122 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [l813 

in Jackson's left shoulder, shattering it horribly. • One of the balls 
struck the thick part of his left arm, and buried itself near the bone. 
The other ball splintered the board partition at his side. The shock 
of the wounds was such, that Jackson fell across the entry, and re- 
mained prostrate, bleeding profusely. 

Coffee had remained just outside, meanwhile. Hearing the re- 
port of the pistol, he sprang into the entry, and seeing his chief 
prostrate at the feet of Colonel Benton, concluded that it was his 
ball that had laid him low. He rushed upon Benton, drew his pis- 
tol, fired, and missed. Then he " clubbed " his pistol, and was 
about to strike, when Colonel Benton, in stepping backward, came 
to some stairs of which he was not aware, and fell headlong to the 
bottom. Coffee, thinking him hors du combat., hastened to the as- 
sistance of his wounded general. 

The report of Jesse Benton's pistol brought another actor on 
the bloody scene — Stokely Hays, a nephew of Mrs. Jackson, and a 
devoted friend to the general. He was standing near the Nash- 
ville Inn, when he heard the pistol. He knew well what was 
going forward, and ran with all his speed to the spot. He, too, 
saw the general lying on the floor, weltering in his blood. But, un- 
like Coffee, he perceived who it was that had fired the deadly 
charge. Hays was a man of a giant's size, and a giant's strength. 
He snatched from his sword-cane its long and glittering blade, and 
made a lunge at Jesse with such frantic force, that it would have 
pinned him to the wall had it taken effect. Luckily the point struck 
a button, and the slender weapon was broken to pieces. He then 
drew a dirk, threw himself m a paroxysm of fury upon Jesse, and 
got him down upon the floor. Holding him down with one hand, 
he raised the dirk to plunge it into his breast. The prostrate man 
seized the coat-cuff of the descending arm and diverted the blow, 
so that the ^\seapon <)nly pierced the fleshy part of his left arm. 
Hays strove madly to disengage his arm, aiKl in doing so gave poor 
Jesse several flesh wounds. At length, with a mighty wrench, he 
tore Ms cuff fvom Je^se Benton's convukive grasp, lifted the dirk 
high in the air, afed was about to "bury it in the heart of his antag- 
onist, when a bystander caught the u}Jifted hand and prevented 
the farther shedding of blood. Other bystanders then interfered ; 
the maddened Hays, the wrathful Coffee, the irate Benton were 
held back from continuing the combat, and quiet was restored. 



1813.] AFFRAY WITH THE BENTONS. 123 

Faint from the loss of blood, Jackson was conveyed to a room in 
the Nashville Inn, his wound still bleeding fearfully. Before the 
bleeding- could be stopped, two mattresses, as Mrs. Jackson used 
to say, were soaked through, and the general was reduced almost 
to the last gasp. All the doctors in Nashville were soon in attend- 
ance, all but one of whom, and he a young man, recommended 
the amputation of the shattered arm. " I'll keep my arm," said 
the wounded man, and he kept it. No attempt Avas made to ex- 
tract th*e ball, and it remained in the arm for twenty years. The 
ghastly Avounds in the shoulder were dressed, in the simple manner 
of the Indians and pioneers, with poultices of slippery elm, and 
other products of the woods. The patient was utterly prostrated 
with theloss of blood. It was two or three weeks before he could 
leave his bed. 

After the retirement of the general's friends, the Bentons re- 
mained for an hour or more upon the scene of the affray, denounc- 
ing Jackson as an assassin, and a defeated assassin. They defied 
him to come forth and renew the strife. Colonel Benton made a 
parade of breaking Jackson's small-sword, which had been dropped 
in the struggle, and left on the floor of the hotel. He broke it in 
the public square, and accompanied the act with words defiant and 
contemptuous, uttered in the loudest tones of his thundering voice. 
The general's friends, all anxiously engaged around the couch of 
their bleeding chief, disregarded these demonstrations at the time, 
and the brothers retired, victorious and exulting. 

Shortly after the affray, Colonel Benton went to his home in 
Franklin, Tennessee, beyond the reach of "Jackson's pttppies." 
He was appointed lieutenant-colonel in the regular army; left Ten- 
nessee ; resigned his commission at the close of the war ; emigrated 
to Missouri; and never again met General Jackson till 1823, when 
both were members of the senate of the United States. Jesse 
Benton, I may add, never forgave General Jackson ; nor could he 
ever forgive his brother for forgiving the general. Publications 
against Jackson by the angry Jesse, dated as late as 1828, may be 
seen in old coUeSions of political trashy 

About the time of this bloody aftVay, Commodore Perry gained 
his victory on Lake Erie. The news, so electric, so revivifying, 
reached Nashville at a moment when other tidings of a nature far 
different absorbed the minds of aU the inhabitants of the frontier. 



124 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1813. 

When these boyish men fought their silly fight, on the 4th of Sep- 
tember, the courier was already on his Avay from the South with a 
piece of news that would have stayed their bloody hands had it 
come in time. If they could but have hnown what was transpir- 
ing on the Mobile River ! Jackson was deeply to blame for that 
shameful afii-ay. Judge, from following chapters, whether ever man 
was so exquisitely punished for a fault as he was for that. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 

August 30th, 1813, was the date of this most terrible event. 
The place was a fort or stockade-of-i-efuge, on the shores of Lake 
Tensaw, in the southern part* of what is now the state of Ala- 
bama. 

One Samuel Minis, an old and wealthy inhabitant of the Indian 
country, had inclosed with upright logs an acre of land, in the 
middle of which stood his house, a spacious one story building, 
with sheds adjoining. The inclosure, pierced with five hundred 
port-holes, three and a half feet from the ground, was entered by two 
heavy rude gates, one on the eastern and one on the western side. 
In a corner, on a slight elevation, a block-house was begun, but 
never finished. When the country became thoroughly alarmed by 
the hostility of the Indians, the inhabitants along the Alabama 
River, few in number and without means of defense, had left their 
crops standing in the fields and their houses open to the plunderer, 
and had rushed to the block-houses and stockades, of which there 
were twenty in a line of seventy miles. The neighbors of Mr. 
Mims resorted to his inclosure, each fiimily hastening to construct 
within it a rough cabin for its own accommodation. 

As soon as the fort — for fort it was called — ^\W sufticiently pre- 
pared for their reception, Governor Claiboi'ne, of iiPew Orleans, dis- 
patched one hundred and seventy-five volunteers to assist in its de- 
fense, under the command of Major Daniel Beasley. -Already, from, 
the neighborhood, seventy militia-men had assembled at the fort, 



1813.] THE ATASSACRE AT FOKT SilMS. 125 

besides a mob of friendly Indians, and one hundred and six negro 
slaves. Upon taking the command, Major Beasley, to accommodate 
the multitude which thronged t»tlie fort, had enlarged it by mak- 
ing a new line of picketing sixty feet beyond the eastern end, but 
left the old line of stockades standing^ thus forming two inclo- 
sures. 

On the morning of the fatal day, though Major Beasley had 
spared some of his armed men for the defense of neighboring sta- 
tions, Fort Mims contained no less than five hundred and fifty-three 
souls, a mass of human beings crowded together in a flat, swampy 
region, imder the broiling sun of an Alabama August. Of these, 
more than one hundred were white "women and children. 

Many days had passed — long, hot, tedious days — and no Indians 
wei'e seen. The first terror abated. The higher officers, it seems, 
had scarcely believed at all in the hostile intentions of the Creeks, 
■and were inclined to make light of the general consternation. At 
least, they were entirely confident in their ability to defend the fort 
against any force that the Indians could bring against it. The 
motley inmates gave themselves up to fun and frolic. A rumor 
would occasionally come in with alanning news of Indian move- 
ments, and, for a few hours, the old caution was resumed, and the 
men would languidly work on the defenses. But still the hourly 
scouts sent out by the commander could discover no traces of an 
enemy, and the hot days and nights still wore away without alarm. 

August 29th, two slaves, who had been sent out to watch some 
cattle that grazed a few miles from the foi't, came rushing breathless 
through the gate, reporting that they had seen twenty-four painted 
warriors. A general alarm ensued, and the garrison flew to their 
stations. A party of horse, guided by the negroes, galloped to the 
spot, but could neither find Indians, nor discover any of the usual 
traces of their presence. Upon their return, one of the negroes 
was tied up and severely flogged for alarming the garrison by what 
Major Beasle/ supposed to be li sheer fabrication. The other 
negro would also have been punished but for the interference of his 
master, who believed his tale; at which interference the major was 
so much displeased that he ordered the gentleman, with his large 
family, to leave the fort .on the following morning. Never did such 
a fatal infittuation possess the mind of a man intrusted with so many 
human lives. 



126 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1813. 

■ The 30th of August arrived. At ten in the morning the com- 
mandant was sitting in his room writing to Governor Claiborne 
a letter (which still exists) to the^fiect that he need not concern 
himself in the least respecting the safety of Fort Mims, as there 
was no doubt of its impregnability against any Indian force what- 
ever. Both gates were wide open. Women were preparing dinner. 
Children were playing about the cabins. Soldiers were sauntering, 
sleeping, playing cards. The owner of the frightened negro -had 
now consented to his punishment rather than leave the fort, and 
.the poor fellow was tied up expecting soon to feel the lash. His 
companion, who had been whipped the day before, was out, tend- 
ing cattle at the same place, where again he saw, or thought he saw, 
painted warriors ; and fearing to be whipped again if he reported 
the news", fled to the next station some miles distant. 

Aw this calm and quiet morning, from before daylight until noon, 
there lay in a ravine only four hundred yards from the fort's east- 
ern gate, one thousand Creek warriors, armed to the teeth, and 
hideous with war-jjaint and feathers. Weathersford, the crafty and 
able chieftain, had led them from Pensacola, where the British had 
supplied them with weapons and ammunition, to this well-chosen 
spot, wliere they crouched and waited through the long slow niorn- 
ing, with the devilish patience with which savages and tigers can 
wait for their prey. So dead was the silence in the ravine, that 
the birds fliittered and sang as usual in the branches above the 
dusky breathing mass. Five prophets with blackened faces, with 
medicine bags and magic rods, lay among them, ready at the signal 
to begin their incantations and stimulate the fury of the Avarriors. 

At noon a drum in the fort beat to dinner ; officers and men, 
their arms laid aside, all unsuspicious of danger, were gathering to 
the meal in various parts of the stockade. That dinner-drum was 
the signal which Weathersford had cunningly chosen for the attack. 
At the first tap, the silent ravine was alive with Indians, who leaped 
up and ran in a tumultuous mass toward the easteriTgate of the de- 
voted fort. The head of the throng had reached a field, one hun- 
dred and fifty yards across, that lay before the gate, had raised a 
hideous whoop, and were streaming across the field, before a sen- 
tinel saw or heard them. Then arose the terrible cry, Indians I 
Indians! and there was a rush of women and childfen to the 
houses, and of men to the gates and ;<) t-holes. Major Beasley was 



1813.] THE MASSACKE AT FORT MIMS. 127 

%ne of the first at the gate, and made a frantic attempt to close it ; 
but sand had washed into the gateway, and ere the obstruction 
could be removed, the savages poured in, felled the commander to 
the earth with clubs and tomahawks, and ran over liis bleeding body- 
in to the fort. He crawled be'hind the gate, and in a few minutes 
died, exhorting his men with his last breath to make a resolute re- 
sistance. At once the whole of that part of the fort which had been 
lately added, and which was sejjarated from the main inclosure 
by the old line of pickets, was filled with Indians, hooting, howl- 
ing, dancing among the dead bodies of many of the best officers and ^ 
men of the little garrison. The poor negro, tied up to be whipped 
for doing all he could to prevent this catastrophe, was killed as he 
stood waiting for his punishment 

The situation was at once simple and horrible. Two inclosures 
adjoining, Avith a line of port-holes through the log partition — one 
inclosure full of men, women, children, friendly Indians and negroes 
— the other filled with howling savages, mad with the lust of 
slaughter; both compartments containing sheds, cabins, and other 
places for refuge and assault — the large open field without the east- 
ern gate covered with what seemed a countless swarm of naked 
fiends hurrying to the fort — all avenues of escape closed by Wea- 
thersford's foresight and viligance — no white station Avithin three 
miles, and no adequate help Avithin a day's march — the command- 
ant and some of his ablest officers trampled under the feet of the 
savage foe. Such was the posture of aftairs at Fort Mims a few 
minutes after noon on this dreadful day. 

The garrison, partly recovering their first panic, formed along the 
line of port-holes and fired some eflective voUeys, killing with the 
first discharge the five prophets who Avere dancing, grimacing, and 
howling among the assailants in the smaller inclosure. These men 
haxl given out that they were invulnerable. American bidlets were 
to split upon their sacred persons and pass ofl" harmless. Their fall 
so abated the ardor of the savages that their fire slackened, and 
some began to retreat from the fort. But ncAV ci-owds kept com- 
ing up, and the attack Avas soon reneAved in all its first fury. 

The garrison, Avith scarcely. an exception, behaved as men should 
do in circumstances so terrible and desperate. One Captain Bailey 
took the command after the death of Major Beasley, and infused the 
fire of his own indomitable spirit into the hearts of the Avhole com- 



128 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [.1813. • 

• 

pany; adding an example of cool valor to encouraging words. Th^ 
garrison maintained a ceaseless and destructive fire through the 
port-holes and from the houses. It happened, more than once, that 
at a simultaneous discharge through a port-hole, both the Indian 
without and the white man within were killed. Even the boys and 
some of the women assisted in the defense ; and few -of the women 
gave themselves wp to terror while there remained any hope of pre- 
serving the fort. Some of the old men broke holes in the'roof of 
the large house and did good execution upon the savages outside 
^of the stockade. The noise was terrific. All the Indians who 
could not get at the port-holes to fight seemed to have passed the 
hours of this horrible day in dancingj'rbund. the fort, screaming, 
hooting, and taunting the inmate.sAJjT-itili their coming fate. 

Amid scenes like these thr.ee'~liours passed, and still the larger 
part of the fort remained in,-the hands of the garrison, though many 
a gallant soldier had fallen, and the rooms of the large house were 
filled with wounded men and ministering women. The heroic 
Bailey still spoke cheerily. He said that Indians never fought 
long when they were bravely met ; ifhey would certainly abandon 
the assault if the garrison continued to resist.' He tried to induce 
a small party to make a sortie, fight their way to the next station, 
and bring a force to attack the enemy in the rear. Failing in this, 
he said he Avould go himself, and began to climb the picketing, but 
was pulled back by his friends, who saw the madness of the at- 
tempt. 

About three o'clock the Indians seemed to tire of the -long con- 
test. The fire slackened ; the bowlines subsided ; the savages be- 
gan to carry ofl:'the plunder from the cabins in the lesser inclosure; 
and hope revived in many a despairing heart. But Weathersford, 
at this hour, rode up on a large black horse, and meeting a throng 
of the retreating plunderers, upbraided them in an animated s])eech, 
and induced them to return with him to the fort and complete its 
destruction. ' "'• 

And now fire was added to the horrors of the scene. By burning ar- 
rows and other expedients, the house of Mr. Mims was set on fire, a.nd 
soon the whole structure, with its extensive out-buildings and sheds, 
was wrajiped in flames ; while the shrieks of the women and cliil- 
dren Avere heard, for the first time, above the dreadful din and whoop 
of the battle. One after another, the smaller buildings caught, 



1813.] THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 120 

until the whole inclosure was a roaring sea of flame, except one poor 
corner, where some extra picketing formed a last refuge to the sur- 
viving victims. Into this inclosui-e hurried a crowd of women, 
children, negroes, old men, wounded soldiers, trampling one an- 
other to death — all in the last agonies of mortal terror. The sav- 
ages were soon upon them, and the work of slaughter— fierce, un- 
relenting slaughter — began. Children were seized by the feet and 
their brains dashed out against the pickets. Women were cut to 
pieces; Men were tomahawked and scalped. Some poor Span- 
iards, deserters from Pensacola, were kneeling along the pickets, and 
were tomahawked, one after another, as they knelt. Weathers-- 
ford, who was not a savgge, but a misguided hero and patriot, 
worthy of Tecumseh's friendship, did what Tecumseh v/ould have 
done if he had been there : h# tried to stop this horrid carnage. 
But the Indians Avei'e delirious and frantic with the love of blood, 
and would not stay their murderous hands"w;hileoi?e of that mass 
of human victims continued to live. . ' 

At noon tliat day, as we have seen, five hundred and fifty-three 
persons Avere inmates of Fort Minis. At sxmset, four hundred man- 
gled, scalped and bloody corpses were heaped and strewed within 
its wooden walls. Not one white woman, not one white child, es- 
caped. Twelve of the garrison, at the last moment, by emitting 
through two of the pickets, got out of the fort, and fled to the 
swamp. A large number of the negroes were spared by the In- 
dians and kept for slaves. A fcAV half-breeds were made prisoners. 
Captain Bailey, severely wotmded, ran to the swa;np,^^4' ^i^d by 
the side of a cypress stump. A negro woman, with-'-a^'ball in her 
breast, reached a canoe on Lake Tensaw, and paddle'd fifteen miles 
to Fort Stoddart, and bore the first news of the massacre to Gov- 
ernor Claiborne. Most of the men who fled from the slaughter 
wandered for days in the swarnps and forests, and only reach- 
ed places of safety, nearly starved, after many a hair-breadth escape 
from the Indians. Some of them are still living, from whose lips 
Mr. A. J. Pickett, the historian of Alabama, gathered most of the 
particulars which have been briefly related here. 

The garrison sold their lives as dearly as they could. It is thought 
that four hundred of Weathersford's band were killed and wound- 
ed. That night the savages, exliausted with their bloody woi'k, ap- 
pear to have slept near the scene of the massacre. Next day they 
6* 



130 LIFE OF ANDREW J A O'K S O N . [1813. 

returned to bury their dead, but fatigued Avith the number, gav-e if 
up, and left many exposed. Ten days after, Major Kennedy 'reach- 
ed the spot with a detachment of troops to bury the bodies of the. 
whites, and found the air dark with buzzards^ and hundreds of dogs 
gnawing the bodies. In two large pits the troops, shuddering now 
with horror, and now fierce for revenge, succeeded at length in^ 
buryiiig the remains of their countrymen and countrywomen. Ma- 
jor Kennedy said in his report, " Indians,' negroes, white men," 
women, and children, lay in one promiscuous ruin. All were scalp-"' 
ed, and the females of every age were butchered in a manner which 
neither decency nor language will permit me to describe. The 
main building was burned to ashes, which were filled with bones. 
The plains and woods around were covered with dead bodies. All 
the houses were consumed by lire, excejit the block-house and a 
part of the pickets. The soldiers and ofticers Avith one voice call- 
ed on divine Providence to revenge the death of our murdered 
•friends." 

Such wjijb the massacre at Fort Mims. The news fiew upon the 
wings of the wind. From Mobile to the borders of Tennessee, 
from the vicinity of New Orleans almost to tli^ coast of Georgia, 
there was felt to be no safety for the white man except in fortified 
posts ; nor certain safety even in them. In the country of the Al- 
abama lii\'er and its branoJies, every v.'hite man, woman, and child, 
every friendly half-brged and Indian, hurried to the stockades, or 
fled in wild terror toward Mobile. " Never in my life," wrote an 
eye-witness, " did I see a country given up before without a struggle. 
Here are the finest crops my eyes ever beheld made and almost fit 
to be housed, with immense herds of cattle, negroes, aind property, 
abandoned by their owners, almost on the first alarm." Within 
the stockades diseases raged, and hundreds of families, luiable to 
get within those inclosures, lay around the walls, squalid, panic- 
stricken, sick, and miserable. Parties of Indians roved about the 
country rioting in plunder. After burning the houses and laying- 
waste the plaiitations, they would drive the cattle togethei* in herds, 
and either destroy them in a mass, or drive them oiF for their fu- 
ture use. The horses were taken to facilitate their marauding, and 
their camps were filled with the litxuries of the planter's houses. 
Governor Claiborne, a generous and feeliiig man, was at his wits' 
end. From every quarter came the most urgent and pathetic de- 



1813.] THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS. 131 

niands for troops. Not a niun could be spared, for no one knew 
■where next the exultant savages would endeavor to repeat the ca- 
tastrophe of Fort Mims; and in the best-defended forts there were 
five non-combatants to one soldier. For some weeks of the autumn 
of 1813, it really seemed as if the white settlers of Alabama, in- 
cluding those of Mobile itself, were on the point of being exter- 
minated. 

Had Weathersford's force, hastened to improve their victory, and 
marched upon Mobile, ill-garrisoned and crowded with fugitives, 
it is probable the town would have fallen before them, and a direct 
comnmnication with the British fleet been established. But an Indian, 
never very wise, is a drunken fool after victory. He must count 
and trim his scalps, recount his exploits, secure his plunder, and 
miss the substantial advantages of his success. 

The news of the massacre at Fort Mims was thirty-one days in 
reaching New York. It is a proof how occupied were the minds 
of the people in the Northern States Avith great events, that the dread 
narrative appeared in the New York papers only as an item of war 
news of comparatively small importance. The last prodigious acts 
in the drama of Napoleon's declme and fall were vv^atched with ab- 
sorbing interest. The nevv^s of Perry's victory on Lake Erie had 
just thrilled the nation with delight and pride, and all minds were 
still eager for every new particular. Hai-rison's victory on the 
Thanies over Proctor and Tecumseh soon followed. The lament- 
able condition of the southern country was therefore little felt at 
the time beyond the states immediately concerned. Perry and Har- 
rison were the heroes of the hour. Their return from the scene of 
their exploits was a continuous triumphal fete. 

In a room at Nashville, a thousand miles from these splendid 
scenes, lay a gaimt, yellow-visaged man, sick, defeated, prostrate, 
with his arm bound up, and his shoulders bandaged, waiting impa- 
tiently for his wounds to heal, and his strength to return. Who 
then thought of Jmn in connection with victory and glory ? Who 
supposed that he, of all men, was the one destined to cast into the 
shade those favorites of the nation, and shine out as the prime hei'o 
of the war? 



132 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1813. 

CHAPTER XV. 

TENNESSEE IN THE FIELD. 

There must have been swift express riding in those early days 
of September, and as stealthy as swift through the Indian country ; 
for, on the 18th of the month, nineteeB days after the massaci'e, we 
find the people of Nashville nssembled in town meeting to delib- 
erate upon the event ; the Rev. Mr. Craighead in the chair. This, 
was Saturday. A committee, of which Colonel Coffee was a mem- 
ber, was ajjpointed to confei- with Governor Blount and General 
Jackson, and report on the following dny. On Sunday morning 
the citizens were again in session, listening to an eloquent address 
by the reverend chairman, and to a series of resolutions urging the 
immediate succor of the southern settlers. It was announced that 
the gx)vernor of the state was favorable to the measure. " We 
have to regret,'' said the committee, " the present temporary indis- 
position of our brg,ve and patriotic General Jackson ; but we have 
the utmost confidence, from his declarations and his convalescent 
state, to announce that he will be able to command so soon as the 
freemen of Tennessee can be collected to march against the foe." 
•Tlie news of the massacre jiroduced everyAvhere in Tennessee 
the most profound impression. Pity for the distressed Alabami- 
ans, fears for the safety of their own borders, rage against the 
Creeks, so long the recipients of governmental bounty, ^^nited to 
inflame the minds of the people. But one feeling pervaded the 
state. With one voice, it was decreed that the entire resources 
and the wjiole available force of Tennessee should be hurled upon 
the savage foe, to avenge the massacre and deliver the southern 
country. 

A most striking narrative of the proceedings of the legislature 
on this occasion, and of the nerve, vigor, and resolution of the pros- 
trate Jackson, Hes before me, from the pen of Mr. Enoch Parsons, 
a member then of the senate of Tennessee. " I arrived at Nash- 
ville," says this gentleman, " on the Saturday before the third 
Monday in September, 1813. 1 found in the public square a very 
large crowd of people, and many-fine speeches were making to the 
people, and the talking part of a war was never better performed. 



A 



1813.] TENNESSEE IN THE FIELD. 133 



was invited out to the place where the orators were liolding forth, 
and invited to address the people. I declined the distinction ; the 
talking ended ; and resolutions were adopted, the substance of 
M^hich was that the enlightened legislature would convene on the 
next Monday, and they would prepare for the emergency. 

"The legislature was composed of twenty senators and forty 
representatives, some of them old, infirm men. As soon as the 
houses were organized, at my table I wrote a bill, arai introduced 
it, to call out 3,500 men, under the general entitled to command, 
and place them in the Indian nation, so that they might preserve 
the Mississippi territory from destruction, and prevent the friendly 
Indians from t^ing the enemy's side, and to render service to the 
United States until the United States could provide a force. The 
bill pledged all the revenue of the state for one hundred years to 
pay the expense, and authorized the governor to borrow money 
from any source he could, and at the lowest rate he could, to defray 
the expenses of the campaign. The secretary of state, William, G. 
Blount, Major John Russell, a senator, and myself signed or in- 
dorsed the Governor's note for twenty thousand dollars, and the 
old patriotic State Bank lent the money which the note called 
for. 

" At this time General Jackson was lying, as he had been be- 
tween ten and twenty days, with the wounds received in the battle 
Avith the Bentons and others, and had not been out of his room, if 
out of his bed. The constitution of the state would not allow the 
bill to become a law until it had passed in each house three times 
on diflerent days. The bill was, therefore, passed in each house on 
Monday, and lay in the senate for Tuesday. 

^' After the adjournment of the houses on Monday, as I passed 
out of the senate chamber, I was accosted by a gentleman, and 
presented with General Jackson's compliments and a request that 
I should see him forthwith. I had not been to his room since my 
arrival. I complied with his request, and found he was minutely 
informed of the contents of the bill I had introduced, and wished to 
know if it would pass, and said the news of the introduction of the 
bill had spread all over the city, and that it was called the ^^^ar 
Bill or Parsons' Bill. I assured the general it would pass, and 3u 
Wednesday would be a law, and I mentioned that I regretted very 
much that the general entitled to command, and who all would de- 



13-1 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1813. 

sire should command the forces of the state, was not m a condition 
to take the field. To which General Jackson replied : 

" 'The devil in hell, he is not.' 

" He gritted his teeth with anguish as he uttered these words, 
and groaned when he ceased to speak. I told him that I hoped I 
was mistaken, but that I did not believe he could just then take the 
field. After some time I left the general. Two hours after, I ]"e- 
ceived fifty or more copies of his orders, which had been made out 
and printed in the mean time, and ordered the troops to rendez- 
vous at Fayetteville, eighty miles on the way, on Thursday. At 
the bottom of the order was a note, stating that the health of the 
commanding general was restored. ^ 

" That evening or the next day, I saw Dr. May, General Jack- 
son's principal physician, and inquired of him if he thought Gen- 
eral Jackson could possibly march. Dr. May said that no other 
man could, and that it was uncertain whether, with his spunk and 
eijergy, he could ; but that it was entirely uncertain what General 
Jackson could do in such circumstances. 

" I felt much anxiety for the country and for the general ; and 
when the general started, which was, I think, on the day before 
the law passed, Dr. May went with him and returned in three or 
four days. I called on Dr. May, upon his return, and inquired how 
the general had got along. Whereupon the doctor stated, that 
they had to stop the genet'al frequently., and wash hhn from head 
to foot in solutions of sugar of lead to keep doion infiatnmation ; 
and that he was better, and he and his troops had gone on ! The 
legislature then prefixed a supplemental bill to suspend all actions 
in which the volunteers were concerned in the courts until their re- 
turn." 

There, reader, you have Andrew Jackson — his real secret, the 
explanation of his character, of his success, of his celebrity. If 
any one inquires of you what manner of man Andrew Jackson 
was, answer him by telling Mr. Parsons' story. 

The 4th of October was the day named in the general's orders for 
the rendezvous at Fayetteville, a village near the northern borders 
of Alabama. Ten days before the day of rendezvous, he dispatched 
l!is old friend and partner. Colonel Coftee, with his regiment of five 
hundred horse, and such mounted volunteers as could instantly join, 
to Huntsville, in the northern part of Alabama, to restdi-e confidence 



1813.] . TENNESSEE IN TKE I'IJA.!). 135 

to the frontier. Huntsville is a hundred miles or more from Nash- 
ville. On the 4th of October, the energetic Coffee had reached the 
place, his force increased to nearly thirteen hundred men ; and vol- 
unteers, as he wrote back to his commander, flocking in every hour. 

The day named for the rendezvous at Fayetteville was exactly 
one month from that on which the commanding general received his 
wounds in the affray with the Bentous. He could not mount his 
hoi'se without assistance when the time came for him to move to- 
ward the rendezvous. His left arm was bound and in a sling. He 
could not wear his coat-sleeve ; nor, during any part of his military 
career, could he long en4vire on his left shoulder the weight of an 
epaulette. Often, in the crisis of a maneuver, some unguarded 
movement would send such a thrill of agony through his attenuated 
frame as almost to deprive him of consciousness. It could not have 
been a pleasant thought that he had squandered in a paltry, puerile, 
private contest, the strength he needed for the defence of his coun- 
try. Grievous was his fault ; bitter the penalty ; noble the atone- 
ment. 

Traveling as fast as his healing wounds permitted, General Jack- 
son reached Fayetteville on the 7th of October, and found that less 
than half of the two thousand men oi'dered out had assembled. 
But welcome tidings from Colonel Coffee awaited him. Hitherto, 
he had chiefly feared for the safety of Mobile, and had anticipated 
a long and weary march into southern Alabama. He now learned 
from Colonel Coflee's dispatch, that the Indians seemed to have 
abandoned their designs upon Mobile, and were making their way, 
in two parties, toward the borders of Georgia and Tennessee. 
This was joyful news to the enfeebled but fiery commander. "It 
is surely," he wrote back to Coffee the same evening, " high grati- 
fication to learn that the Creeks are so attentive to my situation, as 
to save me the pain of traveling. I must not be outdone in polite- 
ness, and will therefore endeavor to meet them on the middle 
ground." 

A week was passed at Fayetteville in Avaiting for the troops, pro- 
curing supplies, organizing the regiments, and drilling the men ; a 
week of intense exertion on the part of the general, to whom con- 
genial employment brought daily restoration. * 

At one o'clock on Monday, the 11th of October, an express dashed 
into camp with another dispatch from Colonel Coft'ee, announcing 



136 L I P^E OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1813. 

the apj:)roach of tlie enemy. Then was seen the impotuoiis energy 
of the general in command. The order to prepare for marching 
was given on the instant. A few minutes later, the express was 
galloping back to Coffee's camp, carrying a few hasty lines from 
Jackson, to the effect that, in two hours, he would be in motion 
with all his available force. Before three, he had kept his word ; 
the army was in full career toward Iluntsville. Excited more and 
more, as they went, by rumor of Indian murders, the men inarched 
with such incredible swiftness, as to reach Iluntsville, thirty-tioo 
miles from Fayetteville, by eight o'clock the same evening ! It is 
hard to believe that an army could march six miles an hour for -five 
hours, but the fact is stated on what may b*e considered the authority 
of General Jackson himself. At Iluntsville, it was found that the 
news of the rapid apjjroach of the Indians was exaggerated. The 
next day, therefore, the force marched leisurely to the Tennessee 
river, crossed it, and toward evening came up with Colonel Coffee's 
command, encamped on the south side of the river. 

So far all had gone well. There they were, twenty-five hundred 
of them, in the pleasant autumn weather, upon a high bluff, over. 
lookmg the beautiful Tennessee, all in high spirits, eager to be led 
against the enemy. There were jovial souls among them. David 
Crockett, then the peerless bear-hunter of the West (to be member 
of Congress by and by, to be national joker, and to stump the coun- 
try against his present commander) was there with his rifle and 
hunting-shirt, the merriest of the merry, keeping the camp alive 
with his quaint conceits and marvelous narratives. Pie had a hered- 
itary right to be there, for both his grandparents had been mur- 
dered by Creeks, and other relatives carried into long captivity by 
t'lem. 

Meriiment, meanwhile, was far from the heart of the general. 
Grappling now with the chronic difficulty of the campaign, he was 
torn with impatience and anxiety. 

Twenty-five hundred men and thirteen hundred horses on a bluff 
of the Teimessee, on the borders of civilization, about to plunge 
into pathless woods, and march, no one knew how far, into the fast- 
nesses and secret retreats of a savage enemy ^ Such a body will 
consume ten wagon loads of provisions every day. For a week's 
subsistence they require a thousand bushels of grain, twenty tons 
of flesh, a tliousand gallons of whisky, and many hundredweight of 



1813.] TENNESSEE IN THE FIELD. 137 

miscellaneous stores. Assemble, suddenly, such a force in the motjt 
populous county of Illinois, as Illinois now is, and it^would not be 
a quite easy matter, in the space of seventeen days, to organize a 
system of supply so that the army could march thirty miles a day 
into the forest, and be sure of finding a clay's rations waiting for 
them at the end of evei'y day's inarch. Colonel Coffee, moreover, 
had been encamped for eight dayS upon the bluff, had swept the 
surrounding country of its forage, and gathered in nearly all the 
provisions it could furnish. All this General Jackson had expected, 
and hither, accordingly, he had directed the supplies from East 
Tennessee to be sent. 

The contractor had abundant provisions, and instantly set about 
dispatching them. " I believe," wrote General Cocke (Commander 
of the forces of East Tennessee) to Jackson, on the 2d day of Oc- 
tober, " a thousand barrels of flour can be had immediately. I will 
send it on to Ditto's landing (Jackson's camp) without delay." To 
the river's side they were sent promptly enough. But the Tennes- 
see, like most of the western riyjrs, is not navigable in its upper 
w^aters in dry seasons, and the flour Avhich General Jackson expected 
to find awaiting him at Cofiee's bluf^ was still hundreds of miles up 
the river, " waiting for a rise." His whole stock, at present, 
amounted to only a few days' supply. To proceed seemed impos- 
sible. He was bitterly disappointfd. Nor was the cause of the 
delay apparent to him, since the Tennessee, where he saw it, flowed 
by in a sufficient stream. Chafing under the enforced delay, like a 
war-horse restrained from the charge after the trumpet has sounded, 
he denounced the contractor and the contract system, and even 
General Cocke, who, zealous for the service, had gone far beyond 
the line of his duty in his efforts to forward the supplies. 

But General Jackson did better things than these. Perceiving 
now, only too clearly, that this matter of provisions was to be the 
great difficulty of the campaign, he sent back to Nashville his friend 
and quarter-master. Major William B. Lewis, in order that he might 
have some one thpre upon whose zeal and discretion he could en- 
tirely rely, and who ^\^ould do all that man could do for his relief 
Colonel Coffee, Avith a body of seven hundred mounted men, he sent 
away from his hungry camp to scour the banks of the Black W^ar- 
rior, a branch of the Tombigbee. He gave the infantry who re- 
mained as hard a week's drilling as ever volunteers submitted to. 



138 LIF.E OF A N D RE W J ACKSO N. TlSlS. 

Order arose from confusion; discipline began to exert its potent 
spell, and the mob of pioneer militia assumed something of the 
aspect of an army. While he was thus engaged, a friendly chief 
(Shelocta) came into camp with news that hostile Creeks, in a con- 
siderable body, were threatening a foi-t occupied by fi'iendly Indians 
near the Ten Islands of the Coosa. The route thither lying in part 
\\p the Tennessee, Jackson resolved, with such provisions as he had, 
to go and meet the expected ilotilla, and, having obtained supplies, 
to strike at once into the heart of the Indian country, and reheve 
the friendly fort. He lived, during these anxious days, with an eye 
ever on the river, heart-sick with hope deferred. 

On the 19tli of October the camp on the bluff broke up. Three 
days of marching, climbing, and road cutting, over mountains before 
supposed to be "impassable, brought the little army to Thompson's 
creek, a branch of the Tennessee, twenty-two miles above the pre- 
vious encampment. To his inexjjressible disappoiotment, be found 
there neither provisions nor tidings of provisions. In circum- 
stances so disheartening and unexpected, most men v/ould have 
thought it better generalship to r*reat to the settlements, and wait 
in safety while adequate arrangements Avere made for the,support of 
the army. No such thought appears to have occurred to the gen- 
eral. Retreat at that moment would have probably tempted the 
enemy to the frontiers of Tenipssee, and covered them with fire 
and desolation. Jackson halted his force at Thompson's creek, and 
while his men were employed in throwing up a fort to be used as a 
depot for the still expected provisions, he sat in his tent for three 
days writing letters the most pathetic and imploring. He wrote to 
General Cocke and Judge Hugh L. White, of East Tennessee ; to 
the governors of Tennessee and Georgia ; to the Indian agents 
among the Cherokees and Choctaws ; to fiiendly Indian chiefs ; to 
General Flourney, of New Orleans ; to various private friends of 
known public spirit ; appealing to every motive of interest and pa- 
triotism that could influence men, entreating them to use all personal 
exertions and public authoi'ity in forwarding supplies to his destitute 
army. Give me provisions, was the burden of these eloquent letters, 
and I will end this war in a month. " There is an enemy," he 
wrote, " whom I dread much more than I do the hostile Creeks, and 
whose power, I am fearful, I shall first be made to feel — I mean the 
meager monster, Famine. I shall leave this encampment in the 



1813.] TENNESSEE IN THE FIELD. 13^ 

morning direct for the Ten Islands, and thence, with as little delay 
as possible, to the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa ; and yet I 
have not on hand two days' snpply of* breadstuffs." 

Colonel Coffee soon after rejoined the general. In twelve days 
he had marched two hundred miles^burnt two Indian towns, col- 
lected three or four hundred bushels of corn, and returned to the 
Tennessee without having seen a hostile Indian. Runners still arriv- 
ing from the Ten Islands with entreaties from the friendly Indians 
for relief, Jackson, with two days' suj)ply of bread and six of flesh, 
resolved to march, and depend for subsistence upon chance and 
victor)'-. 

Leaving Fort Deposit on the 25th of October, the general marched 
southward into the enemy's country as fast as the state of his coni- 
missaria't permitted ; halting when his corn quite gave out ; march- 
ing agam when he procured a day's supply 5 sending out detachments 
to burn A'illages and find hidden stores ; writing letter after letter, 
imploring succor from the settlements ; always resolute, always in an 
agony of suspense. On one of these days. Colonel Dyer, who had 
been sent out with a detachment of two hundred men, returned to 
camp Avith twenty-nine j^risoners and a considerable supply of corn, 
the spoils of a burnt village. Other slight successes on the march 
served to keep the men in good spirits, but were not sufficient to 
lift for more than a moment the load of care that rested upon the 
heart of the general. A week brought the whole force, intact, to 
the banks of the Coosa, Avithin a few miles of the Ten Islands, near 
which, at a town called Talluschatches, it was nov/ known, a large 
body of the Indians had assembled. 

Talluschatches was thirteen miles from General Jackson's camp. 
On the 2d of November came the welcome order to General Coffee 
(he had just been promoted) to march with a thousand mounted 
men to destroy this town. Late hi the same day, the detachment 
were on the trail, accompanied by a body of friendly Creeks, Avear- 
ing white feathers and Avhite deei-s' tails, to distinguish them from 
their hostile brethren. The next morning's sun shone upon Coffee 
and his men preparing to assault the toAvn. What foUoAved, let the 
braA'-e general himself relate. 

" I arrived," wrote General Coffee in his official report to Jackson, 
" within one mile and a half of the tOAvn on the morning of the 3d, 
at which place I divided my detachment into two columns, the right 



.140 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1813. 

composed of tlie cavalry commanded by Colonel AUcorn, to cross 
over a large creek that lay between us and the towns ; the left col- 
umn was of the mounted riflemen, under the command of Colonel 
Cannon, with whom I marched myself. Colonel Allcorn was order- 
ed to march up on the right, and encircle one-half of the town, and 
at the same time the left would form a half circle on the left, and 
unite the head of the columns in front of the town — all of which 
was performed as I could wish. When I arrived within half a mile 
of the town, the drums of the enemy began to beat, mingled with 
their savage yells, preparing for action. It was after sunrise an hour 
when the action was brought on by Captain Hammond and Lieuten- 
ant Patterson's companies, who had gone on within the circle of 
alignment, for the purjjose of drawing out the enemy from their 
buildings ; which had the most happy effect. As soon as Captain 
Hammond exhibited his front in view of the town (which stood in 
an open woodland), and gave a few scattering shot, the enemy 
formed and made a violent charge on him ; he gave way as they 
advanced, until they met our right column, which gave* them a gen- 
eral fire and then charged. This changed the direction of charge 
completely. The enemy retreated firing, until they got around, and 
in their buildings, where they made all the I'esistance that an over- 
powered soldier could do. They fought as I'ong as one existed ; 
but their destruction was very soon completed. Our men rushed 
up to the doors of the houses, and in a few minutes killed the last 
warrior of them. The enemy fought with savage fury, and met 
death with all its horrors, without shrinking or complaining : not one 
asked to be spared, but fought as long as they could stand or sit. In 
consequence of their flying to their houses and mixing with the fami- 
lies, our men, in killing the males, without intention, killed and wound- 
ed a few of the squaws and children, which was regretted by every offi- 
cer and soldier of the detachment, but which could not be avoided. 
" The number of the enemy killed was one hundred and eighty- 
six, that were counted, and a number of others that were killed in 
the weeds, not found. I think the calculation a reasonable one, to 
say two hundred of them were killed, and eighty-four prisoners of 
women and children were taken. Not one of the warriors escaped 
to carry the ucavs — a circumstance unknown heretofore. We lost 
five men killed, and forty-one wounded, none mortally, the greater 
part slightly ; a number with arrows. This appears to form a veiy 



1813.] TENNESSEE IN THE FIELD. 141 

princij^a] part of tlie enemy's arms foi* warfare, every man having a 
bow with a bundle of arrows, Avhich is used after the first fire with 
the gun, until a leisure time for loading offers." 

On the evening of the same day, General Cofiee having destroyed 
the tOAvn and buried his dead, led his victorious troops back to 
Jackson's camp, Avhere he received from his general and the rest of 
the army the welcome that brave men give to brave men returning 
from triumph. Along with the returning horsemen, joyful with 
their victory, came into camp a sorrowful procession of prisoners, 
all women or children, all widows or fatherless, all helpless and des- 
titute. They were humanely cared for by the troops, and soon after 
sent to the settlements for maintenance during the war. 

On the bloody field of Talluschatches Avas found a slain mother, 
still embracing her living infant. The child was brought into camp 
with the other prisoners, and Jackson, anxious to save it, endeavored 
to induce some of the Indian women to give it nourishment. " No," 
said they, " all his relations are dead, kill him too." This reply ap- 
pealed to the heart of the general. He caused the child to be taken 
to his own tent, where, among the few remaining stores, was found 
a little brown sugar. This mingled with water, served to keep the 
child alive until it could be sent to Huntsville, where it was nursed 
at Jackson's expense until the end of the campaign, and then taken 
to the Hermitage. Mrs. Jackson received it cordially ; and the boy 
grew up in the family, treated by the general and his kind wife as 
a son and a favorite. Lincoyer was the name given him by the gen- 
eral. He grew to be a finely formed and robust youth, and re- 
ceived the education usually given to the planters' sons in the neigh- 
borhood. Yet, it appears, he remained an Indian to the last, de- 
lighting to roam the fields and Avoods, and decorate his hair and 
clothes with gay feathers, and given to strong yearnings- for his na- 
tive wilds. At the proper age, the general, wishing to complete his 
good work by giving him the means of independence, took him 
among the shops of Nashville, and asked him to choose the trade he 
would learn. He chose the very business at which Jackson him- 
self had tried his youthful hand — harness making. The apprentice 
now spent the Avorking days in the shop at Nashville, going to the 
Hermitage on Sunday evenings, and returning on Monday morning, 
generally riding one of the general's horses. The work did not 
agree with him, and he came home sick to the Hermitage, to leave 



142 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1813. 

it no more. His disease proved to be consumption. He was 
nursed with care and solicitude by good Aunt Rachel, but he sank 
rapidly, and died before he had reached his seventeenth year. The 
general sincerely mourned his loss, and often spoke of Lincoyer as 
a parent speaks of a lost child. 

A lady of Nashville tells me, that when, as a little girl, she used 
to visit the Hermitage with her parents, this Indian boy was her 
terror ; as it was his delight to spring out upon the other children 
from some ambush about the house, and frighten them with loud 
yells and horrible grimaces. 

It was General Jackson's turn next. Thirty miles from his en- 
campment on the Coosa stood a small fort, into which, as before in- 
timated, a party of a hundred and fifty-four friendly Creeks had fled 
for safety. The site of this fort is now covered by part of the town 
of Talladega, the capital of Talladega county, Alabama, a thriving 
place of two thousand inhabitants, situated on a branch of the Coo- 
sa, in the midst of beautiful mountain scenery. This region was, at 
the time of which we are now writing, literally a howling wilder- 
ness ; for, while General Cofiee was returning in triumph from Tal- 
luschatchee, more than a thousand hostile Creeks suddenly sur- 
rounded the friendly fort and invested it so completely that not a 
man could escape. With only a small supply of corn, and scarcely 
any water, outnumbered seven to one, and unable to send intelli- 
gence of their situation, the inmates of the fort seemed doomed to 
massacre. The assailants appear to have comported themselves on 
this occasion in the manner of a cat^sure of her mouse. They 
whooped and sported around their prey, waiting for terror or star- 
vation to save them the trouble of conquest. 

Some days j^assed. The sulferings of the beleaguered Indians 
from thirst began to be intolerable. A noted chief of the party re- 
solved upon making one desperate eflbrt to escape and carry the 
news to Jackson's camp. Enveloping himself in the skin of a large 
hog, with the head and feet attached, he left the fort, and went 
about rooting and grunting, gradually workiilg his way through the 
hostile host until he was beyond the reach of their arrows. Then, 
throwing off his disguise, he fled with the swiftness of the wind. 
Not knowing precisely where General Jackson was, he did not 
reach the camp till late in the evening of the next day, when he 
came in, breathless and exhausted, and told his storv. 



1813.] TENNESSJE3 IN THE FIELD. 143 

This was on the Vth of November, four days after the affair of 
Talluschatches, during which the general and the troops had been 
busy in erecting a fortification, or depot, which was named Fort 
Strother. The army was still, as it had been from the beginning 
of the campaign, only a few days removed from starvation. Con- 
tractors had been dismissed, new ones appointed, more imploring 
letters written, and every conceivable effort made, and yet no relia- 
ble system had been devised to overcome the inherent difficulties 
of the work. To the general's other embarrassments was now add- 
ed the care of the considerable number of wounded and sick, many 
of whom could not be moved. There was one encouraging circum- 
stance, however. The troops from East Tennessee, under Major- 
General Cocke and Brigadier-General White, had, at length, reach- 
ed the vicinity, and a force under General White was expected to 
join the next day, and to bring with them some supplies. So Gen- 
eral White himself had written. Jackson, at the moment when 
the messenger from the beleaguered fort arrived, was in his tent, 
closmg his reply to the coming general, to whom he imparted the 
new intelligence and annc^unced his intentions with regard to it, 
adding that he depended upon him (General White) to protect his 
camp during his own absence from it. 

Relying, with the utmost possible confidence, upon General 
White's arrival, Jackson, with his usual dashing promptitude, issued 
orders for his whole division, except a few men to guard the post 
and attend the sick, to prepare for marching that very evening. 
He had taken the resolution to rush to the relief of the friendly 
Creeks, justly supposing that the massacre of such a body, within 
BO short a distance. of an American army, would intimidate all the 
friendly Indians, and tend to unit#the southern tribes, as one man, 
against the United States. 

At one o'clock in the morning of November the 8th, eight hun- 
dred horsemen and twelve hundred foot, under command of Gen- 
eral Jackson, stood on the bank of the Coosa, one mile above Fort 
Strother, ready to 'cross. The river was Avide but fordable for 
horsemen. Each of the mounted men taking behind hhn one of the 
infantry, rode across the river and then returned for another. This 
operation consumed so long a time that it was nearly four o'clock 
in the morning before the whole force was drawn up on the oppo- 
site bank prepared to move. A long and weary march through a 



144 LIFK OF ANDREW JACKSON. [l813. 

country wild and uniuliabited brought them, about sunset, within 
six miles of Talladega. There the general thought it best to halt 
and give repose to the troops, taking precautions to conceal his 
presence from the enemy. 

There was no repose for the general that night. Till late in the 
evening he remained awake, receiving reports from the spies sent 
out to reconnoiter the enemy's position, and making arrangements 
for the morrow's work. At midnight, an Indian came into the camp 
with a dispatch from General White, announcing, to Jackson's in- 
expressible astonishment and dismay, that, in consequence of posi- 
tive orders from General Cocke, he would not be able to protect 
Fort Strother, but must return and rejoin his general immediately. 
No other explanation was given. Jackson was in sore perplexity. 
To go forward was to leave the sick and wounded at Fort Strother 
to the mercy of any strolling party of savages. To retreat would bring 
certain destruction iipon the friendly Creeks, and, probably, the whole 
besieging force upon his own rear. In this painful dilemma, he resolv- 
ed ujjon the boldest measures, and the wisest — to strike the foe in his 
front at the dawn of day, and, having delivered the inmates of the 
fort, hasten from the battle field to the protection of Fort Strother. 

Before four in the morning the army was in full march toward 
the enemy. A sudden and vigorous attack soon put to flight the 
besieging host, and set free the loyal Creeks, whose delight at their 
escape is described to have been affecting in the extreme. Besides 
being nearly dead from thirst, they were anticipating an assault that 
very day, and had no knowledge of Jackson's approach imtil they 
heard the noise of the battle. Fifteen minutes after the action be- 
came general, the savages were flying headlong in every direction, 
and falling fast under the sword»of the pursuing troops. The de- 
livered Creeks ran out of the fort, and, having appeased their 
raging thirst, thronged around their deliverer, testifying their de- 
light and gratitude. The little corn that they could spare the gen- 
eral bought and distributed among his hungry men and horses. 
He had left Fort Strother with only provisions for little more than 
one day, and the supply obtained from the Creeks amounted to less 
than a meal for his victorious army. 

The dead honorably buried, and the wounded placed in litters, 
the troops marched back to Fort Strother the day after the battle. 
They arrived tired and hungry, yet fondly hoping that, in their al> 



1813.] TENNESSEE IN THE FIELD. 145 

sence, some sup))lies liacl been collected. JSTot a peck of meal, not 
a pound of flesh had reached the fort ; and tliey found their sick 
and -wounded comrades as hungry as themselves. It Avas a bitter 
moment. The general was in an agony of disapi^ointment and ap- 
prehension. The men, though returning from victory, murmured 
ominously. Until this day, the general and his staff had subsisted 
npon private stores procured and transported at his own expense. 
Before leaving for Talladega, he had directed the surgeons to draw 
upon these, if necessary, for the maintenance of the sick, and upon 
liis return he found that all had been consumed, except a few 
pounds of biscuil. These were immediately distributed among the 
hungry applicants, not one being reserved for the general. Con- 
cealing his feelings, and assuming a cheerful aspect, he went among 
the men and endeavored to give the affair a jocular turn. He 
went Avith his staff to the slaughtering place of the camp, and 
brought away from the refuse there the means of satisfying his ap- 
petite, declaring with a smiling face that tripe was a savory and 
nutritious article of food, and that for his part he desired nothing 
better. For several days succeediugj while a few lean cattle Avere 
the only support of the army, General Jackson and his military 
family subsisted upon tripe, Avithout bread or seasoning. 

Jackson soon saAv the effect of his brilliant success at Talladega. 
The Hillabee warriors, Avho had been defeated in that battle, at 
once sent a messenger to Fort Strother to sue for peace. Jackson's 
reply was prompt and characteristic. His government, he said, 
had taken up arms to avenge the most gross depredations, and to 
bring back to a sense of duty a people to Avhoni it had shown the 
utmost kindness. When those objects were attained the war Avould 
cease, but not till then. " Upon those," he continued, " Avho are 
disposed to become friendly, I neither wish nor intend to make Avar, 
but they must afford evidences of the sincerity of their professions ; 
the prisoners and property they have taken from us and the friendly 
Creeks must be restored ; the instigators of the Avar, and the mur- 
derers of our citizens, must be surrendered ; the latter must and 
will be made to feel the force of our resentment. Long shall they 
remember Fort Mims in bitterness and tears." 

The Hillabee messenger, who Avas an old Scotchman, long domes- 
ticated among the Indians, departed Avith Jackson's reply. It was 
never delivered. Before the message reached the Hillabees an 



146 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1813. 

event occurred which banished from tlieir minds all thought of 
peace, changing them from suppliants for pardon into enemies the 
most resolute and deadly of all the Indians in the southern country. 
General White of East Tennessee, totally unaware of the state of 
feehng among the Hillabees, nay, supposing them to be inveterately 
hostile, marched rapidly into their country, burning and destroying. 
On his way he burnt' one village of thirty houses, and another of 
ninety-three. The principal Hillabee town, Avhence had proceeded 
the messenger to Jackson asking peace, and whither that messen- 
ger was to return that day. General White surprised at daybreak, 
killed sixty warriors, and captured two hundred and fifty women 
and children. Having burnt the town, he returned to General 
Cocke, supposing that he had done the state some service. 

The feelings of the Hillabee tribe may be imagined. This^ then, 
is General Jackson's answer to our humble suit ! Thus does he 
respond to friendly overtures ! They never knew General Jack- 
son's innocence of this deed. From that time to the end of the 
war, it was observed that the Indians fought with greater fury 
and persistence than before ; for they fought wath the blended 
energy of hatred and despair. There was no suing for peace, 
no asking for quarter. To fight as long as they could stand,' and 
as much longer as they could sit or kneel, and then as long as they 
had strength to shoot an arrow or pull a trigger — were all that Jthey 
supposed remained to them after tlie destruction of the Hillabees. 

General Jackson's grief and rage at this most unfortunate aftair 
were natural and justifiable. Before aU the Indian world he stood 
condemned as a violator of his written word, as a man capable of 
parleying with a beaten and suppliant enemy for the purpose of 
striking him an exterminating blow. The efiect, too, was disas- 
trous in many ways. It discouraged the friendly Indians, roused 
the submissive, exasperated the hostile, turned the Avar into a series 
of massacres, and prolonged it for many anxious and terrible weeks. 
What with the submission of the Hillabees, and the brilliant success- 
es, soon after, of the Georgia ti-oops under General Floyd, and 
the victories of the Louisiana and Mississippi troops under General 
Claiborne, the war would probably have come to an end with the 
end of the year 1813, if this new element of despair had not been 
infused into the savage mind. 



1813.] MUTINY IN THE CAMP. 147 

CHAPTER XVI. 

MUTINY IN THE CAMP,. 

" An army like a serpent, goes upon its belly," Frederic of Prus- 
sia used to say. " Few men know," Marshal McMalion is reported 
to have remarked, after one of the late Italian battles, "how im- 
portant it is in war for soldiers not to be kept waiting for their 
rations ; and what vast events depend upon an army's not going 
into action before it has had its coffee." I have read somewhere 
that Napoleon, on being asked what a soldier most needed in war, 
answered, " A full belly and a good pair of shoes." 

We left General Jackson at Fort Strother, giving out his last 
biscuit to his hungry troops, and appeasing his own appetite with 
unseasoned tripe. Then followed ten long weeks of agonizing per- 
plexity, during which, though the enemy was unmolested by the 
Tennessee troops, their general appeared in a light more truly 
heroic than at any other part of his military life. His fortitude, his 
will, alone saved the campaign. His burning letters kept the cause 
alive in the state ; his example, resolution, activity, and courage pre- 
served the conquests already achieved, and prepared the way for 
others that threw them into the shade. The spectacle of a brave 
man contending with difficulties is one in which the gods were said 
to take delight. Such a spectacle was exhibited by Andrew Jack- 
son during these weeks of enforced inaction. 

Hunger, that great tamer of beasts and men, is precisely the 
enemy against which amateur soldiers are least able to contend. 
Lounging and dozing about the camp, unable to make the slightest 
attempt against the foe, their first love of adventure satisfied, desir- 
ous to recount their exploits to friends at home, pining for the 
abundance they had left, anxious for their farms and families, and 
angered at the supposed neglect of the state authorities and con- 
tractors, the troops became discontented, and began to clamor for 
the order to return into the settlements. Jackson's force consisted 
of two kinds of troops, militia and volunteers. It seemed at first 
a proof of the safety of the purely voluntary principle, that it was 
among the militia that the discontents took quickest root ; the 



148 LIFE OF ANDRE AV JACKSON. [1S13. 

pride of the volunteers keeping tliem firm in their duty after the 
militia were resolved to abandon theirs. It is said, however, that 
some of the volunteers who, from their having accompanied the 
general on his fruitless march to Natchez, were looked xipon as the 
veterans of the army, were not the last to join the malcontents, 
nor the most moderate in expressing their feelings. These men 
spoke with a kind of oracular authority, which had influence with 
the youn'ger soldiers. iSome of the ofticers, too, overcome by that 
bane and bliglit of republican \irtue, the hist of popularity, secretly 
sided with the men, and fomented their mutinous disposition. In 
secluded places about the camp, by the watch-fires at night, where- 
ever a group of hungry soldiers were together, they talked of their 
wrongs, of the uselessness of remaining where they were, and how 
much better it would be for the army to return home for a while, 
and finish the war under better auspices at a more convenient 
season. 

In circumstances like these revolt ripens apace. Ten days of 
gnawing hunger and inaction at Fort Strother brought all the 
militia regiments to the resolution of marching back, in a body, to 
the settlements, with or without the consent of the commanding 
general, and a day was fixed upon for their departure. Jackson 
heard of it in time. On the designated morning, the militia began 
the homeward movement. But they found a lion in the path. The 
general was up before tliem, and had drawn up on the road leading 
to the settlements the whole body of volunteers, with orders to 
prevent the departure of the militia, peaceably if they could, forci- 
bly if they must. Tlie militia, in this unexpected posture of aflairs, 
renounced their intention, and, obeying the orders of the general, 
returned to their position and their duty. 

It soon appeared, however, that the volunteers were as much 
chagrined and disappointed at the success of this movement as the 
miUtia, and, ere night closed in, resolved themselves to depart on 
the following day. The general, apprised of their intention, was 
again early in the field. Imagine the surprise of the volunteers 
when, on taking the projected line of march, they foimd drawn up 
in hostile array to prevent them, the very militia whose departure 
tljey had frustrated the day before ! The militia stood firm, and 
the volunteers, not withoiit some grim laughter at this j^ractical 
retort, I'eturued to their stations. The ca\alry, however, having 



1813.] MUTINY IN THE C A HI P . 149 

■4. 

petitioned the general for permission to retire to Ilnntsville long 
enongli to recruit their famished horses, promising to return when 
that object "was accomplished, were allowed to leave. Jackson re- 
mained in the wilderness with his thousand infantry, now sullen 
and enraged, and rapidly approaching the point of downright 
mutiny. 

As was his wont in every crisis, the general tried the effect of a 
}>atriotic .'iddrcss. Inviting the officers of all grades to his quarters, 
he first laid before them the letters last received from Tennessee, 
which gave assurance that a plentiful supply of provisions was 
already on the way, and that measures vvere in operation which 
would hisure a sufficiency in future. He then delivered a warm 
and energetic speech, extolling their past achievements, lamenting 
their privations, and urging them still to persevere. The conquests 
they had already made, he said, were of the greatest importance, 
and the most dreadful consequences would result from abandoning 
them. " To be sure," said he in conchision, "" we do not live sump- 
tuously ; but no one has died of hunger, or is likely to die ; and then 
how animating are our prospects ! Large supplies are at Deposit, 
and already are officers dispatched to hasten them on. Wagons 
are on the way : a large number of beeves are in the neighborhood ; 
and detachments are out to bring them in. All these resources can 
not fail. I have no wish to starA'e you — none to, deceive you. 
Stay contentedly ; and if svpplies do not arrive in two days, too 
%oill all march hack together, and throw the blame of our f lilure 
where it should properly lie ; until then we certainly have the 
means of subsisting ; and if we are compelled to bear privations, 
let us remember that they are borne for our country, and are not 
greater than many, perhaps most armies have been compelled to 
endure. I have called you together to tell you my feelings and my 
wishes; this evetiing think on them seriously ; ^nd let me know 
\ours in the morning." 

The officers returned to their quarters, and consulted with the 
troops. On this occasion, whether from a s^jirit of rivalry or the 
sense of duty, the militia prpved more tractable than the volunteers, 
for on the return of the officers to Jackson's tent, the officers of the 
volunteer regiments repox'ted that nothing short of an immediate 
return to the settlements could prev^ent the forcible departure of 
their men; but the militia officers declared iho willingness^ of their 



150 LIFE OP ANDKEW JACKSON. [1813. 

troojDS to remain long enough to ascertain whether supplies could 
be obtained. "If they can," said tliey, "let us proceed with the 
campaign — if not, let us be marched back to where tliey can be 
procured." 

The general thought it best to take both bodies at their word. 
He sent one i-egiment of volunteers to meet the conijng jirovisions, 
ordering them to return with.them as an escort. The other volun- 
teer regiment, shamed by the superior fortitude of the militia, 
agreed to stay two days longer; and thus the general gained a 
brief respite from his torturing solicitude. These departhig volun- 
teers were the very men whom Jackson had refused to abandon at 
Natchez, even at the command of the government, and for whose 
safe return he had pledged and risked his fortune. That they 
should have been the first, in his sore perplexity, to abandon Aim, 
was an event which gave him the most acute mortification. 

The two days passed. No jDrovisions arrived. The militia de- 
manded the prompt fulfillment of the general's promise. He was 
now in the dilemma that Columbus loould have been in if land had 
not been descried in three days. He was caught in his own trap. 
He had fully believed that two days would not pass without the 
arrival of at leAst supplies enough to release him from his engage- 
ment. All expedients now were exhausted. Overwhelmed with des- 
pondency, he lifted up his hands and exclaimed, after long brooding 
over his situation, " If only two men will remain with me, I will 
never abandon the post !" One Captain Gordon replied, in a jocu- 
lar manner, *' You have one, general, let us see if we can not find 
another." He set about seeking volunteers, and, aided by the gen- 
eral's staff, soon obtained the names of one hundred and nine-men 
who agreed to remain and defend the fort. Rejoicing at this re- 
sult, the general left Fort Strother in their charge, and marched 
himself, with the rest of the troops, toward Fort Deposit, upon the 
explicit miderstanding that, having met the expected provisions, 
and having satisfied their hunger, they were to return with thg pro- 
vision train to Fort Strother, and proceed against the enemy. It 
was to insure the performance of this jengagement that he com- 
manded them in person. 

Away they marched, -haggard and hungry, but in high spirits, and 
praying Heaven they might not meet the coming supplies — so des- 
perate was their desirfe to return home. To Jackson's inexpressible 



1813.] MUTINY IN THE CAMP. 151 

joy, and to tlie dismay of his troops, they had not marched more 
tiiaii twelve miles before they saw approaching them a drove of one 
hundred and fifty cattle. Halt, kill, and eat, was the word. The 
slaughtering, the cooking, and the devouring were quickly accom- 
plished ; and the army, filled witli beef and ^'alor, felt itself able to 
cope even with General Jackson. To return to Fort Strother was 
the furthest from their thoughts. When the order to return was 
given the general himself was not in the immediate presence of the 
troops, and the order wasi not obeyed. One company moved off 
on the homeward road, had gone some distance, and were about 
to be followed b;^^ others, when word was brought to Jackson of the 
mutiny. Followed by his staff and a few faithful friends, ho gal- 
loped hi pursuit, and came, by a detour, to a part of the road a little 
in advance of the deserters, where he found General Coffee and a 
small force. Forming these across the road, he ordered them to fire 
upon the deserters if they should persist in their attempt to leave. 
On coming up, the homesick gentlemen gave one glance at the 
fiery general and the opposing force, and fled precipitately to their 
stations. 

The manner, appearance, and language of General Jackson on 
occasio)is like this were literally terrific. Few common men could 
stand befoi'e the ferocity of his aspect and the violence of his words. 
On the present occasion, I presume that the mutineers were put to 
flight as much by the terrible aspect of the general as by the armed 
men who were with him. We can fancy the scene — Jackson in ad- 
vance of Coftee's men, his grizzled hair bristling up from his fore- 
head, his face as red as fire,%is eyes sparkling and flashing ; roaring 
out with the voice of a Stentor and the energy of Andrew Jackson, 
" By the immaculate God ! I'll blow the damned villains to eternity, 
if they advance another step!" 

Trusting that the men would now do their duty, the general went 
among them, leaving General Coffee and his own staff to proceed 
with the pi-eparations for departure. He found almost the whole 
brigade hifected, and on the point of moving toward home. Upon 
the instant, he resolved to prevent this, or perish there and then in 
the path before them. He seized a musket and rode a few paces in 
advance of the troojjs. His left arm was still in a sling. Leaning 
his musket on his horse's neck, he swore he would shoot the first 
man that attemj)ted to proceed. Meanwhile, General Coffee and 



152 Llli'i: OF ANDREW J A C K B O N . [1813. 

Mnjor Keid, Rus})eetiiig that something extraordinary was occurring, 
ran up, and found tlieir general in tliis attitude, with the cohimn of 
mutineers standing in sullen silence before him; not a man daring 
to stii" a foot forward. Placing themselves by his side, they awaited 
the result with intense anxiety. Gradually a few of the troops, who 
were still faithful, were collected behind the general, armed, and 
resolved to use their arms in his support. For some minutes the 
column of mutineers stood firm to their purpose, and it only needed 
one man bold enough to advance to bring, on a bloody scene. They 
wsivered, however, at length, abandoned their purpose, and agreed 
to return to their duty. It afterward appeared, that the musket 
which figured, so effectually in this scene was too much out of order 
to be discharged. 

The troops were not in the highest spirits, nor in the most ami- 
able humor, as they marched back to Fort Strother, that afternoon. 
Yet they marched l)ack, and the frontiers were still safe. Jackson 
did not return with them, but proceeded to Fort Deposit to inspect 
that post, and personally hasten forward supplies. Prodigious ex- 
ertions were now put forth. Major Lewis surpassed himself. Two 
hundred pack horses and forty wagons were taken into service by 
him. From this time the operations of the army were not seriously 
impeded by the want of suT>phes. News noAV came that the meas- 
ures so hastily adopted by the state of Tennessee had been ap- 
proved by the government at Washington, and that the whole force 
employed had been received %ito the service of the United States. 
Jackson rejoined his division in high spirits, and Avas rejoiced to 
find that the works at Foi't Strother ha(t been vigorously carried on 
in his absence. Nothing seemed noAvto oppose the snccessfxd pros- 
ecution of the war. A few SMaft marches, a few Avell-fought en- 
gagements, and the troops might return home, the general thought, 
to receive the applause of the state and the nation. Ordering 
General Cocke to join him at Fort Strother, Avith the troops from 
East Tennessee, he expected nothing but to rencAV the contest upon 
their arrival. 

But the general was reckoning without his army. The A'^ohmteers, 

jenetrated Avlth the spirit of discontent, soon provided themselves 

Avith a ncAV argument for abandoning the service. The first days 

■of December Avere noAv passing. It was on the 10th of December, 

1812, that these volunteers had entered into service; engaging, as 



1813.] M UTI N Y IN THE CAM p. 153 

they said, to serve one yc.ir. They, accordingly, made no secret of 
their intention to leave the camp on the lOlh of December, 1813. 
But they were noAV reckoning without their general, who recalled to 
their recollection that they had engaged to serve one year in two! 
They liad been subject to the call of the government for a year, 
but for more tlian half of that period they had been at home, pur- 
suing their own affairs. Xothing short, maintained the general, 
of three hundi-ed and sixty-five days of actual service in the field 
could release them, from their obligation before the 10th of Decem- 
ber, 1814. 

Such was the new issue between tlie general and the volunteers. 
It was warmly argued, with the inevitable effect of confirming each 
in the opinion that accorded with his desire. The general was clear 
in the belief that he was in the right ; but he seems, from the begin- 
ning of this contest, to have seen that it was useless to attempt new 
enterprises, unless seconded by the alacrity of his men. Therefore, 
while firmly resisting the departure of the troops, he saw the 
necessity of procuring new levies from the state, and to this object 
devoted his energies. General Roberts, Colonel Carroll, and Major 
Searcy, ofiicers high in his confidence, were dispatched to Tennessee 
to hasten the assembling of anew army; while Jackson wrote letter 
upon letter to influential friends, urging them to aid the cause by 
personal efforts. 

But to raise a new force and march it a hundred and fifty miles 
into the Indian country was necessarily, a work of considerable time, 
during which we see the general, some of his best oflacers away 
recruiting, and his right arm. General Coffee, sick at Huntsville, 
contending, almost alone, with a fractious soldiery. Defeated in 
their previous attempts at forcible departure, these men now tried 
to move their commander by argument and entreaty. A formal 
letter from one of the colonels, which Jackson received a few days 
before the dreaded 10th of December, expressed the feelings of the 
troops. It made kriown to him that the whole body of volunteers 
retained the unalterable opinion that they would be entitled to a 
legal release on the 10th. "They, therefore, look to their general, 
who holds their confidence, for an honorable discharge on that day ,• 
and that, in every respect, he will see that justice be done them." 

An appeal like this was harder for a man of Jackson's cast of 
character to resist than armed mutiny. He had no choice hut to 

(7* 



154 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1813. 

resist it. It was essential to the safety of the frontiers that these 
men should remain in service, at least until they could be relieved 
by other troops. Jackson's reply to this letter was moderate and 
unanswerable. 

" The moment." said he, " it is signified to me by any competent 
authority, even by the governor of Tennessee, to whom I have 
written on the subject, or by General Pinckney, who is now ap- 
pointed to the command, that the volunteers may be exonerated 
from further service, that moment I will pronounce it, with the 
greatest satisfaction. I have only the power of i^ronouncing a dis- 
charge — ^not of giving it, in any case ; a distinction which I would 
wish should be borne in mind. Already have I sent to raise volun- 
teei"s, on my own responsibility, to complete a campaign which has 
been so happily begun, and thus far, so fortunately prosecuted. The 
moment they arrive, and I am assured that, fired by our exploits, 
they will hasten in crowds, on the first intimation that we need their 
services, they will be substituted in the place of those who are dis- 
contented here. The latter will then be permitted to return to their 
homes, with all the honor which, under such circumstances, they 
can carry along with them. But I still cherish the hope that their 
dissatisfiiction and complaints have been greatly exaggerated. I 
cannot, must not believe, that the ' Volunteers of Tennessee,' a name 
ever dear to fame, will disgrace themselves, and a country Avhich 
they have honored, by abandoning her standard, as mutineers and 
deserters ; but should I be disappointed, and compelled to resign 
this pleasing hope, one thing I will not resign — my duty. Mutiny 
and sedition, so long as I possess the power of quelling them, shall 
be put down ; and even when left destitute of this, I will still be 
found, in the last extremity, endeavoring to discharge the duty I 
owe my country and myself." 

The afternoon of the 9th ended. The frenzy of the men to return 
was such, that they were determined not even to wait for the morn- 
ing ; but to march at the very moment their last day's service had 
been rendered. Jackson was in his tent, not anticipating a move- 
ment that evening, when an officer suddenly entered, and informed 
him that the whole brigade was in mutiny, and preparing to march 
off in a body. JBy the Eternal ! All the tiger in the man was roused 
in an instant. He dashed u]>on paper the following order : 

" The commanding general being informed that an actual mutiny 



1813.] MUTINY IN THE CAMP. 155 

exists in the camp, all officers and soldiers are connnanded to put 
it down. The officers and soldiers of the first brigade will, with- 
out delay, parade on the west side of the fort, and await further 
orders." * 

He further ordered the artillery company, with their two small 
pieces of cannon, to take positions in front and rear, and the militia 
to be drawn up on an eminence commanding the road upon which 
the volunteers intended to march. These orders were obeyed with 
surprising alacrity, for Jackson was now in that mood that men felt 
it perilous to resist. The general mounted his" horse and rode up 
to the line of volunteers, as they stood along the western side of the 
fort, silent, sullen, and determined. He broke at once into an im- 
passioned, yet not angry address. He praised their former good 
conduct. He dwelt upon the disgrace that would fall upon them- 
selves and their families if they should carry home with them the 
name of mutineers and deserters. Never should they do it but by 
passing over his dead body. He would do his duty, at any cost ; 
aye, even if he perished there before them, dying honorably at his 
post. " Reinforcements," said he, " are preparing to hasten to my 
assistance ; it cannot be long before they arrive. I am, too, in daily 
expectation of receiving information whether you may be discharged 
or not. Until then you must not, and shall not retire. I have done 
with entreaty — it has been used long enough — I will attempt it no 
more. You must now determine whether you will go or peaceably 
remain. If you still persist in your determination to move forcibly 
off, the point between us shall soon be decided." 

He paused. No one answered ; no one moved. " I demand an 
explicit answer," said the general. There was still no response. He 
ordered the artillerjniien to be ready with their matches, himself re- 
maining in front of the mutineers, and within the line of lire. The 
men now evidently hesitated. Whispers ran along the line recom- 
mending a return to duty. Soon the officers stepped forward and as- 
sured the general that the troops Avere willing to remain at the fort 
until the arrival of reinforcements, or of the answer to General 
Jackson's inquiries respecting«their term of service. The men 
were dismissed to their quarters, and the general was once more 
triumphant. 

Jackson had triumphed only so far as to secure the presence of 
the men at the post. He now made an effort to restore his army to 



15G I.IFE or ANDREW JACKSON. • [1813. 

contetitinent. The nenr approach of General Cocke having- strength- 
ened his position, lie resolved to permit the homesick brigade to 
march to Tennessee, there to be dismissed or retained as the gov- 
ernor slioiild decide. 

GenerarCocke reached Fort Strother on the r2th of December 
with his division of two thousand men. Jackson learned, however, 
tliat the term of service of more than half of this Ijody was on the 
very point of expiring, and that none of them had longer than a 
month to serve. Nor were any of them provided with clothhig 
suitable for a Avinter campaign. Retainhig eight hundred of these 
troops, who owed still a inontirs service, Jackson ordered Genernl 
Cocke to march the rest of his division back to the settlements, 
there to dismiss them, and to enroll a new force, properly provided, 
and engaged to serve six months. lie addressed the departing 
troops, entreating them to join the neAV army as soon as they 
had procured their clothing, and return to him and aid in complet- 
ing the conquest of the enemy. 

These Avere dark days for General Jackson. Every thing went 
wrong. The return of so many troops, bearing with them the feel- 
ings they did, giving out that, after enduring privations, gaining 
victories, and holding the savages in check for iwo months, they 
had been refused an honorable dismissal, and sent home almost in 
disgrace, threw a damper upon the eiForts to raise new men, and 
spread discontent among those already engaged. Even the horse- 
men of General CojQfee, who had been allowed to leave Fort Stroth- 
er for a while, to recruit their horses at home, could not be induced 
to return to duty. Assembling at the call of the gallant Coffee^ 
they heard the tale of the returning troops, caught their spirit, be- 
came mutinous, riotous, and unmanageable. At length, they broke 
away in a tumultuous mass toAvard home. General Coifee galloped 
in pursuit, accompanied by the eloquent Blackburn, and both ad- 
dressed the fugitives with all the persuasive energy of which they 
were capable. But in vain. Nearly to a man the cavalry brigade 
rode away, rioting and wasting as they Avent, and were seen as an 
organized body no more. % 

Affairs Avere little better at Jackson's own camp. He had four- 
teen hundred men at Fort Strother, of Avhom eight hundred Avould 
be free to return home hi four Aveeks. The remaining six hundred 
Avere militia Avho had been called out upon the receipt of the news 



1813.] MUTINY IN THE CAMP. 15Y 

of Fort Minis, by an act of the legislature, Avliich, most unibrtim- 
ately, did not specify any time of service. Three months^ said the 
militia, is the term established by King Precedent. By no means, 
replied Jackson ; the omission in the act mnst be supplied by the 
phrase, /br ^/<e ?rar. The militia were summoned, he maintained, 
for the jiurpose of avenging Fort Mims, and conquering a lasting 
peace. These objects accomplished, the work for which the ti'oops 
Avere engaged would be done, and they would be entitled to an 
honorable discharge. But not till then. 

Here were the elements of new discontents and new nmtinies. 
The three months would expire on the 4th of January, and already 
the latter half of December was gliding away. Tlius, in two weeks, 
Jackson was threatened with the loss of six hundred of his troops ; 
and in four weeks the remaining eight hundred would certainly 
depart. The campaign was falling to pieces in every direction. 
Jackson's military career seemed about to close in disgrace, and 
the glory of the Tennessee volunteers to be extinguished forever. 

But this was not all. Dis.aster menaced every assailable por- 
tion of the South-west. Letters came from General Pinckney, the 
chief in command in that region, ordering General Jackson to hold 
all his posts, since it had become a matter of the iirst national im- 
portance to deprive the British of their Indian allies. 

How anxiously, in such circumstances, General Jackson looked 
for news from Tennessee may be imagined. Help from that quarter 
alone could save him ; and that help he had implored from Governor 
Blount, who alone could grant it. The expected dispatch from 
Nashville reached Fort Strother at length, and proved to be a most 
disheartening response to Jackson's entreaties. The governor 
feared to, transcend his authority. Having called out all the troops 
authorized by Congress and the legislati;re, what could he do 
more? The campaign had failed, he said, and he advised General 
Jackson to give up a struggle which could have no favq^-able issue, 
and return home to wait until the general government should pro- 
vide the means requisite for carrying on the war with vigor. 

Not for one instant did Jackson concur in this Anew of tlie pitna- 
tion. He was of that temper which gained new determination from 
other men's despair. The last ounce stiffened his back, not broke 
it. He went to his tent and wrote to the governor the Uest letter 
he ever wrote in his life — one of those historical epistles which do 



158 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. ' [1814. 

the woi'k of a campaign in rolling back the tide of events. This 
eloquent epistle convinced and roused Governor Blount. He forth- 
with ordered a new levy of twenty -five hundred men to rendezvous 
at Fayetteville on the 28th of January, to serve for three months, 
and authorized General Cocke'to obey Jackson's order for raising 
a new division of East Tennesseeans. The asj)ect of affairs in the 
state was immediately changed. The noise of preparation was 
everywhere heard. There was a furbishing of arms and a tramp 
of mai'ching men in all quarters of the state. In a few days, the 
honorable scruples of the governor were completely set at rest by a 
dispatch from the secretary of war, which more than covered all 
he had done, and sanctioned any further requisition of men which 
he might deem necessary. If Jackson could but hold his position 
a few weeks longer, there was every prospect of his being able once 
more to act with efficiency. 

From the middle of December to the middle of January, General 
Jackson was called upon to endure every description of mortifica- 
tion and difficulty known to border warfare. On the 4th of Janu- 
ary, his six hundred militia, in spite of warning and entreaty, and 
after scenes of violence similar to those already related, marched 
homeward. On the 14th, the eight hundred of General Cocke's 
division, whose term of service then expired, were earnestly be- 
sought to remain, if only for twenty days. The savages were in 
motion again, and threatened the frontiers of Georgia. Jackson 
implored these men to make one excursion into the enemy's coun- 
try, to strike one blow at them for the purpose of, at least, diverting 
or dividing their force, and giving an easier victory to the Georgia 
troops. But no ; their minds were set resolutely homeward, and 
away they marched, leaving him with a mere handful of men to 
guard the post. Moreover, the new recruits could not be induced 
to engage for six months. Colonel Carroll, rather than bring back 
no meii, had enlisted a body of horse for tv)o months onlj^, and 
General Roberts returned with infantry engaged for three. These 
men General Jackson was obliged to accept, or be left alone in the 
wilderness. 

On the 15th of January, then, we find the gener.d at Fort Strother 
with nine hundred raw recruits, who had come out with the expec- 
tation of making a single raid into the Indian territory, and then 
to return to narrate their exploits and draw their pay. Such troops 



1814.] MUTINY IN THE CAMP. 159 

it is dangerous to keep in inaction for a single week. The regular 
levies from Tennessee could not be expected for a month to come. 
The necessity of striking a blow at the exulting enemy was pressing. 
In these circumstances, Jackson, Avith the daring prudence that 
characterized his career, resolved upon instant action, and gave the 
order to prepare for marching against the foe. 

Let us read the general's own official account of this dash into 
the Indian country: " I took up the line of march on the 17th of 
January, and on the 18th encamped at Tallageda Fort, where I was 
joined bjPbetween two and three hundred friendly Indians, sixty- 
five of whom were Cherokees, the balance Creeks. Here I received 
your letter of the 9th instant, stating that General Floyd Avas ex- 
pected to make a movement from Cowetau the next day, and that 
in ten days thereafter he would establish a firm position at Tuck- 
batchee ; and also a letter from Colonel Snodgrass, who had returned 
to Fort Armstrong, informing me that an attack was intended to 
be soon made on that fort by nine hundred of the enemy. If I 
could have hesitated before, I could now hesitate no longer. I 
resolved to lose no time in meeting this force, which was under- 
stood to have been collected from New Yorcau, Oakftiskie, and 
Ufouley towns, and were concentrated in a bend of the Tallapoosa, 
near the mouth of a creek, called Emuckfau, and on an island below 
New Yorcau. ^ 

"On the morning of the 20th, your letter of the 10th instai^ for- 
warded by M'Candles, reached me at the Hillabee creek ; and that 
night I encamped at Enotachopco, a small Hillabee village about 
twelve miles from Emuckfau. Here I began to perceive very plainly 
how little knowledge my spies had of the country, of the situation 
of the enemy, or of the distance I was from them. The insubor- 
dination of the new troops, and the want of skill in most of their 
officers, also became more and more apparent. But their ardor to 
meet the enemy was not diminished ; and I had sure reliance upon 
the guards, and upon the company of old volunteer officers, and 
upon the spies, in all about one hundred and twenty-five. My wishes 
and my duty" remained united, and I was determined to effect, if 
possible, the objects for Avhich the excursion had been principally 
undertaken. 

"On the morning of the 21st, I marched from Enotachopco as 
direct as I could for the bend of the Tallapoosa, and about two 



160 • LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

o'clock, P. M., my spies having discovered two of the enemy, endeav- 
ored to overtake them, bnt failed. In tlie evening I fell in npon a 
large trail, which led to a new road, much beaten, aiid lately traveled. 
Knowing that I must have arrived within the neighborhood of a 
strong force, and it being late in the day, I determined to encamp, 
and reconnoiter the country in the night. I chose the best site the 
country would admit, encamped in a hollow square, sent out my 
sjDies and pickets, doubled my sentinels, and made the necessary 
arrangements before dark for a night attack. About ten o'clock at 
night one of the pickets fired at three of the enemy, and Killed one, 
but he was not found imtil the next day. At eleven o'clock the spies 
whom I had sent out, retiirned with the information that there v/as 
a large encampment of Indians at the distance of about three miles, 
who, from their whooping and dancing, seemed to be apprised of 
our approach. One of the spies, an Indian, in whom I had great 
confidence, assured me that they were carrying oft' their women and 
children, and that the warriors would either make their escape, or 
attack me before day. Being prepared at all points, nothing re- 
mained to be done but to await their approach, if they meditated 
an attack, or to be in readiness, if they did not, to pursue and attack 
them at daylight. While we were in this state of readiness, the 
enemy, about six o'clock in the morning, commenced a vigorous 
attad^on my left fiank, which was vigorously met. The action con- 
tinuln to rage^pn my left flank, and on the left of my rear, for about 
half an hour. The brave General Coftee, with Colonel Sitler, the adju- 
tant-general, and Colonel Carroll, the inspector-general, the moment 
the firing commenced, mounted their horses and repaired to the line, 
encouraging and animating the men to the pei'formance of their duty. 
So soon as it became light enough to jjursiie, the left wing having 
sustained the heat of the action, and being somewhat weakened, 
was reinforced by Caj^tain Ferrill's company of infimtry, and was 
ordered and led on to the charge by General Coftee, who was well 
supported by Colonel Higgins and the inspector-genei-al, and by .all 
the officers and privates who composed that line. The enemy was 
completely routed at every point, and the friendly Indians joining 
in the pursuit, they were chased about two miles with considerable 
slaughter. 

" The chase being over, I innnediately detached General Coftee 
with four iiandred men, and all the Indian force, to burn their eu- 



1814.] M ITTI N Y I N THE C AM p. 161 

campment ; but it A\'as said l)y some to be fortifietl. I ordered liim 
in tliat event not to attack it until the artillery could be sent forward 
to reduce it. On viewing the encampment and its strength, the 
general thought it most prudent to return to my encampment, and 
guard the artillery thither. The wisdom of that step was soon dis- 
covered — in half an hour after" his return to camp a considerable 
force of the enemy made its appearance on my right flank, and 
commenced a brisk lire on a party of men who had been on picket 
guard the night before, and were then in search of the Indians they 
had fired upon, some of whom they believed had been killed. Gen- 
eral Coffee immediately requested me to let him take two hundred 
men and turn their left flank, which I accordingly ordered ; but, 
through some mistake, which I did not then observe, not more than 
fifty-four followed him, among whom were the old volunteer ofiicers. 
With these, however, he immediately commenced an attack on the 
left flank of the enemy; at which time I ordered two hundred of 
the friendly Indians to fall in upon the right flank of the enemy, and 
cooperate with the general. This order was promptly obeyed, and 
on the moment of its execution, what I expected was realized. The 
enemy had intended the attack on the right as a feint, and expecting 
to direct all my attention thither, meant to attack me again, and with 
their main force, on the left flank, which they had hoped'to.flnd 
weakened and in disorder : they were disappointed. I had dr^|red 
the left flank to remain firm in its place, and the moment the alMfm 
gun was heard in that quarter, I repaired thither, and ordered 
Captain Ferrill, part of my reserve, to support it. The whole line 
met the approach of the enemy with astonishing intrepidity, and 
ha\ing given a few fires, ihey forthwith charged with great vigor. 
The enemy fled with preci})itation, and were pursued to a consider-, 
able distance by the left flank and the friendly Indians, with a?, 
gallmg and destructive fire. Colonel Carroll, who ordered the 
charge, led on the pursuit, and Colonel Higgins and his regin^ht 
again distingultelied thi,miselves. . * 

'^ In the mean time General Coftee Avas contending with A superior 
force of the enemy. The Indians whom I had ordered to his supjiort, 
and who had set out for this purpose, hearing the firing on the left, 
liad returned to that quarter, and when the enemy were routed there, 
entered into the chase. That being now over, I forthwith oi-dered 
Jim Fife, who v/as one of the principal commanders of the friendly 



162 LIFE OF ANDREW JACK SO K. [1814. 

Creeks, with one Iiundred of his warriors, to execute my first order. 
So soon as he reached General Coffee, the charge was made and the 
enemy rented ; they were pursued about three miles, and forty-five 
of them slain, who were found. General Coffee was wonnded in 
the body, and his aiddecamp, A. Donelson, killed, together with 
three others. Having brought in and buried the dead, and dressed 
the wounded, I ordered my camp to be fortified, to be the better 
prepared to repel any attack which might be made in the night, 
determining to made a return march to Fort Strotherthe following 
day. Many causes concurred to make such a measure necessary, .'ft 
I had not set out prepared, or with a view to make a permanent 
establishment. I considered it worse than nseless to advance and 
destroy an empty encampment. I had, indeed, hoped to have met 
the enemy there, but having met and beaten them a little sooner, I 
did not think it necessary or prudent to proceed any farther — not 
necessary, because I had accomplished all I could expect to effect 
by marching to their encampment; and because if it was j^roper to 
contend with and weaken their forces still farther, this object would 
be more certainly attained by commencing a return, which, having 
to them the appearance of a retreat, would inspirit them to pursue 
me. Not prudent — because of the number of my wounded ; of the 
reenforcements from below, which the enemy might be expected to 
rec^ve ; of the starving condition of my horses, they having had 
nelmer corn nor cane for two days and nights ; of the scarcity of 
supplies for my men, the Indians who joined me at Talladega having 
drawn none, and being wholly destitute ; and because if the enemy 
pursued me, as it was likely they would, the diversion in favor of 
General Floyd would be the more complete and effectual. Influenced- 
by these considerations, I commenced my return march at half 
after ten on the 23d, and was fortunate enough to reach Enotachopco 
before night, having passed, without interruption, a dangerous defile 
occasioned by a hurricane. I again fortified my camp, and having 
another defile to pass ip the morning, across a deep creek, and 
between two hills which I had viewed with attention as I passed on, 
and where I expected I might be attacked, I determined to pass it 
at another point, and gave directions to my guide and fatigue men 
accordingly. My expectation of an attack in the morning was 
increased by the signs of the night, and with it my caution. Before 
I moved the wounded from the interior of my camp I had my front 



1814.] MUTINY IN THE CAMP. 163 

and rear guards formed, as well as my right and left colmnns, and 
moved oif my center in regular order, leading down a li^tndsome 
lidge to Enotacliopco creet, at a point where it was clear of reed, 
except immediately on its margin. I had previously issued a general 
order, pointing out the manner in which the men should be formed 
in the event of an attack on the front or rear, or on the flanks, and 
had particularly cautioned the ofilcers to halt and form accordingly, 
the instant tlie word should be given. 

" The front guard had crossed with part of the flank columns, 
the wounded were over, and the artillery in the act of entering the 
creek, when an alarm gun was heard in the rear. I heard it with- 
out surprise, and even with pleasure, calculating with the utmost 
confidence on the firmness of my troops, from the manner in which 
I had seen them act on the 22d. I liad placed Colonel Carroll at 
the head of the center column of the rear-guard ; its right column was 
commanded by Colonel Perkins, and its left by Colonel Stximp. 
Having chosen the ground, I expected there to have entirely cut off 
the enemy, by wheeling the right. and left columns on their pivot, 
recrossing the creek above and below, and falling in upon their 
flanks and rear. But, to my astonishment and mortification, when 
the Avord was given by Colonel Carroll to halt and form, and a few 
guns had been fired, I beheld the right and left columns of the rear 
guard precipitately give way. This shameful retreat Avas disastrous 
in the extreme ; it drew along with it the greater part of the center 
column, leaving not more than twenty-five men, who, being formed 
l)y Colonel Carroll, maintained their ground as long as it was pos- 
sible to maintain it ; and it brought consternation and confusion 
into the center of the army ; a consternation which was not easily 
removed, and a confusion which could not be soon restored to order. 
There was then left to repulse the enemy, the few who remained of 
the rear-guard, the artillery company, and Captain Russell's com- 
pany of spies. They, hoAvever, realized and exceeded my highest 
expectations. Lieutenant Armstrong, who commanded the artil- 
lery company in the absence of Captain Deaderick (confined by 
sickness), orc|ered them to form and advance to the top of the hill, 
Avhilst he and a few others dragged up the six-pounder. Never was 
more braA-ery displayed than on this occasion. Amidst the most 
galling fire from the enemy, more than ten times tl eir number, 
they ascended the hill, and maintained their position until their 



164 LIFE OF ANDRi:W JACKSON. [1814. 

piece was hauled up, when, having leveled it, they poured upon 
the enenjy a fire of grape, reloaded and fired again, charged and 
repulsed them. 

"The most deliberate bravery was displayed by Constantine 
Perkins and Craven Jackson, of the artillery, acting as gunners. 
In the hurry of the moment, in separating the gun from the lim- 
bers, the rammer and picker of the cannon were left tied to the 
limber. No sooner was this discovered, than Jackson, amidst the 
galling fire of the enemy, pulled out the ramrod of his musket and 
used it as a picker ; ])rimcd with a cartridge and fired the cannon. 
Perkins having pulled ofl" his bayonet, used his musket as a ram- 
mer, drove down the cartridge ; and Jackson using his former plan, 
again discharged her. The brave Lieutenant Armstrong, just after 
the first fire of the cannon, with Captain Hamilton, of East Tennes- 
see, Bradford, and M'Gavock, all fell, the lieutenant exclaiming as 
he lay, ' My brave fellows, some of you may fall, but you must save 
the cannon:'' About this time, a number crossed the creek and en- 
tered into the chase. The brave Captain Gordon, of the spies, who 
rushed from the front, endeavored to turn the flank of the enemy, 
in which he partially succeeded, and Colonel Carroll, Colonel Hig- 
gins, and Captains Elliot and Pipkins, pursued the enemy for more 
than two miles, who fled in consternation, throwing av/ay their 
packs, and leaving twenty-six of their Avarriors dead on tlie field. 
This last defeat was decisive, and we were no more disturbed by 
their yells, I should do injustice to my feelings if I omitted to 
mention that the venerable Judge Cocke, at the age of sixty-five, 
entered into the engagement, continued the pursuit of the enemy 
with youthful ardor, and saved the life of a fellow-soldier by kill- 
ing his savage antagonist. 

" In these several engagements, our loss was twenty killed and 
seventy-five wounded, four of whom have since died. The loss of 
the enemy can not be accurately ascertained ; one hundred and 
eighty-nine of their warriors were found dead ; but this must fall 
considerably short of the number really killed. Their wounded can 
only be guessed at." 

The conduct of General Coffee in the second engagement was 
eminently praiseworthy. Wounded in the first battle, he was car- 
ried to the scene of the second on a litter. When the retreat of 
the rear-guard threw the army into confusion and peril, he mounted 



1814.] TUE FINISHING BLOW. 1G5 

his horse and rode wherever the danger Avas greatest, inspirhig 
the men by his presence, his words, and his example, and contribut- 
ing most powerfully to restore the fortunes of the day. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE FINISHING BLOW. 

The excursion over, and the new levies from Tennessee approach- 
ing, Jackson dismissed his victorious troops, whose term of service 
was about to expire. He bade them farewell in an address abound- 
ing in kind and flattering expressions ; and they left him feeling all 
that soldiers usually feel toward the general who has led them to 
victory. 

The return .of these troops, animated by such sentiments, gave a 
new impetus to the cause in Tennessee, and fired the troops who 
were on their way to the seat of war Avith new zeal. From all 
quarters came volunteers, hurrying tOAvard the standard of the suc- 
cessful general, Avhose prospects now brightened Avith every day's 
dispatches. On the 3d of February came ncAvs that two thousand 
East Tennesseeaus Avere far on their Avay to join him. A day or 
tAVO after a dispatch informed the general that nearly as many West 
Tennessee troops had reached Huntsville and Avaited his orders. 
On the 6th, marched into Fort Strother the thirty-nhith regiment 
of United States infantry, six hundred strong, under Colonel Wil- 
liams, a most important acquisition. Into this regiment one S^M 
Houston had recently enlisted as a private soldier, and made his 
Avay to the rank of ensign ; the same Sam Houston Avlio AvTis'^fter- 
Avard president of Texas and senator of the United States. " 

In addition to this most important reenforcement, there came in, 
soon after, a part of General Coffee's old brigade of mounted men, 
and a troop of dragoons from East Tennessee. The ChoctaAv Indi- 
ans now openly joined the peace party, and asked orders froni; 
General Jackson.. There Avas no lack of men of any description. 
Long before February closed, Jackson Avas at the head of an army 
of fi\ e thousand men, all Avitlun a fcAV days' marcli of P^'ort Strother, 



166 LIFE OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [1814. 

waiting only till tlie general could accumulate twenty days' rations 
to march in, and strike, as they hoped, a finishing blow at the 
enemy. 

Six weeks of intense labor, on the part of the general and his 
army, Avere required to complete the preparations for the decisive 
movement. The middle of March had arrived. The various divi- 
sions of the army were assembled at Fort Strother, and the requi- 
site quantity of provisions had been accumulated. A system of ex- 
presses had been estabHshed for the conveyance of information to 
General Pinckney and Governor Blount. With much difficulty, 
one man had been found competent to beat the ordinary calls on 
the druin, and this one drum was the sole music of the army. De- 
ducting the strong guards to be left at the posts already estab- 
lished, the force about to march against the enemy amounted to 
about three thousand men. 

The attention of the reader is now to be directed to a remarkable 
" bend" of the river Tallapoosa, about fifty-five miles from Fort 
Strother, the scene, for so many weeks, of General Jackson's stren- 
uous endeavors. 

The Tallapoosa and the Coosa are the rivers which unite in the 
southern part of Alabama, and form the Alabama river. The bend 
of. which we speak is about midway between the source and the 
mouth of the Tallapoosa. It occurs where the stream is not ford- 
able during the spring rains, but is not wide enough to present a 
very serious obstacle to an Indian swimmer. From the shape of 
this peninsula the Indians called it Tohopeka, which means horse- 
shoe. It contains a hundred acres of land, since a cotton field. 
The neck, or isthmus, is about three hundred and fifty yards across. 
The ground rises somewhat from the edge of the water. It was a 
wild, rough piece of ground, abounding in places which would 
afford covert to an Indian warrior. At the time of which we write, 
the surrounding country, for a hundred miles or more, was a nearly 
unbroken wilderness of forest, swamp, and cane, marked only by 
the trail of wild beasts and the " trace" of wild men. As well 
from its situation as its form, this place was entitled to be styled 
the heart of the Indian country. 

Here it was that the evil genius of the Creeks prompted them to 
assemlile the warriors of all the tribes residing in that vicinity, to 
make a stand against the great army with which, their runners told 



1814.] THE FINISHING BLOW. 167 

them, General Jackson was preparing to overrun the Indian country. 
The long delays at Fort Strother had given them time to prepare 
for his reception, and they had well improved that time. Across 
the neck of the peninsula they had built (of logs) a breastwork of 
immense strength, pierced with two rows of port-holes. The line 
of defense was so drawn that an approaching enemy Avould be ex- 
posed both to a direct and a raking fire. Behind the breastwork was 
a mass of logs and brushwood, such as Indians delight to fight from. 
At the bottom of the peninsula, near the river, was a village of huts. 
The banks of the river were fringed with the canoes of the savage 
garrison, so that they possessed the means of retreat, as well as of 
defense. The greater part of the peninsula was still covered with 
the primeval forest. AVithin this extensive fortification were assem- 
bled about nine hundred warriors of various Creek tribes, and about 
three hundred women and children. 

The Indian force was small to defend so extensive a line of forti- 
fication. But a variety of circumstances conspired to give the savage 
garrison confidence ; such as, the impregnable strength of the breast- 
work, its peculiar construction, the facilities afforded in the interior 
of the bend for the Indian mode of fightigg, the partial successes 
gained by the Indians at Emuckfaw and Enotachopco — of which 
they continually boasted, averring that they had made " Captain 
Jackson " run — and, above all, the positive and reiterated predic- 
tions of their prophets. Three of the most famous of the prophets 
Avere there, performing their incantations day and night, and keep- 
ing alive that religious fury which had played so great a part in pre- 
vious battles. And besides, in case the breastwork loere cari-ied, 
and the bend overrun, how easy to rush to the canoes and paddle 
across the river, laughing at their baflied assailants as they van- 
ished into the woods on the opposite shore ! So thought the 
Creeks. , 

Jackson was eleven days in marching his army the fifty-five miles 
of untrodden wilderness that lay between Fort Strother and the 
Horseshoe bend of the Tallapoosa. Roads had to be cut, the Coosa 
explored, boats waited for and rescued from the shoals, high ridges 
crossed, Fort Williams built and garrisoned to keep open the line 
of communication, and numerous other difiiculties overcome, before 
he could penetrate to the vicinity of the bend. It was early in the 
morning of March the 27th that — with an army diminished by gar- 



168 L I F E O r A N D R K W J A C K S O X . [l 814. 

risoning the posts to two thousand men — he reached the scene and 
prepared to commence operations. 

Perceiving, at one glance, that the Indians had simply penned 
themselves up for slaughter, his first measure was to send General 
Coffee, with all the mounted men and friendly Indians, to cross the 
river two miles below, Avhere it was fordable, to take a position oii 
the bank opposite the line of canoes, and so cut off the retreat. 
This was promptly executed by the ever-reliable Coffee, who soon 
announced by a concerted signal that he had reached the station 
assigned him. Jackson then planted his two pieces of cannon — one 
a three the other a six-pounder — upon an eminence eighty yards from 
the nearest point of the breastwork, whence, at half-past ten in the 
morning, he opened fire upon it. His sharp-shooters, also, were 
drawn up near enough to, get an occasional shot at an Indian within 
the bend. * 

A steady fire of cannon and rifles was kept up in front for two 
hours, without producing any hopeful beginning of a breach in the 
breastwork. The little cannon balls buried themselves in the logs, 
or in the earth between them, without doing decisive harm. The 
Indians whooped in dej^^sion as they struck and disappeared. 

Meanwhile, General Coffee, not content to remain inactive, hit 
upon a line of conduct that proved eminently eflective. He sent 
some of the best swimmers among his force of friendly Indians 
across the river, to cut loose and bring away the canoes of the be- 
leaguered Creeks. That done, he used the canoes for sending over 
a party of men under Colonel Morgan, with orders, first, to set fire 
to the cluster of huts at the bottom of the bend, and then to rush 
forward and attack the Indians behind the breastwork. 

This was gallantly done. The force under Jackson soon perceived, 
from the smoke of the burning huts, and from the rattling fire be- 
hind the bi'eastwork, that General Coflee was up and doing. Soon, 
however, that fire was observed to slacken, and it became apparent 
that Morgan's force was too small to do more than distract and divide 
the attention of the assailed. This, however, alone, was an immense 
advantage. Jackson's men saw it, and clamored for the order to 
assault. The general hesitated many minutes before giving an order 
that would inevitably send so many of his brave fellows to their 
account, and the issue of which was doubtful. The order came at 
length, and was received Avith a general shout. 



1814.J THE FINISHING BLOW. 169 

The thirty-ninth regiment, under Colonel Williams, the bvio-ade 
of East Tennesseeans under Colonel Bunch, marched rapidly up to 
the breastwork and delivered a volley through the port-holes. The 
Indians returned the fire with effect, and, muzzle to muzzle, the 
combatants for a short time contended. Major L. P. Montgomery, 
of the thirty-ninth, was the first man to si)ring upon the breastwork, 
where, calling upon his men to follow, he received a ball in his head 
and fell dead to the ground. At that ciitical moment, young Ensign 
Houston mounted the breastwork. A barbed arrow^ pierced his 
thigh ; but, nothing dismayed, this gallant youth, calling his com- 
rades to follow, leaped down among the Indians, and soon cleared 
a space around him with his A'igorous right arm. Joined in a 
moment by parties of his own regiment, and by large numbers of 
the East Tennesseeans, the breastwq^ was soon cleared, the Indians 
retiring before them into the underbrush. 

The wounded ensign sat down within the fortification, and called 
a lieutenant of his company to draw the arrow.from his thigh. Two 
vigorous pulls at the barbed weapon failed to extract it. In a fury 
of pain and impatience, Houston cried, " Try again, and if you fail 
this time, I will smite you to the earth." Exerting ah his strength, 
the lieutenant drew forth the arrow, tearing the flesh fearfully, and 
causing an effusion of blood that compelled the Avounded man to 
hurry over the breastwork to get the wound bandaged. While he 
was lying on the ground under the surgeon's hands, the general 
rode up, and recognizing his young acquaintance, ordered him not 
to cross the breastwork again. Houston begged him to recall the 
order, but the general repeated it peremptorily and rode on. In a a 
few minutes the ensign had disobeyed the command, and was once ■ 
more with his company, in the thick of that long hand-to-hand er. 
gagement Avhich consumed the hours of the afternoon. 

Not an Indian asked for quarter, nor would accept it when offered. 
From behind trees and logs ; from clefts in the river's banks ; from 
among the burning huts; from chance log-piles; from temporary 
fortifications ; the desp'erate red men fired upon the troops. A large 
number plunged into the river and attempted to escape by swim- 
ming; but from Coffee's men on one bank, and Jackson's on the 
other, a hailstorm of bidlets flew over the stream, and the painted 
heads dipped beneath its blood-stained ripples. The battle became, 
at length, a slow, laborious slaughter. From all ]>arts of the penin- 
8 



ITO LIFE OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [J8.14. 

sula resounded the yelfs of the savages, the shouts of the assailants, 
and the reports of the fire-arms; while the gleam of the uplifted 
tomahawk was seen among tlie branches. 

Toward the close of the afternoon it was observed that a con- 
siderable number of the Indians had found a refuge imder the bluffs 
of the I'iver, where a part of the breastwork, the formation of the 
ground, and the felled trees, gave them complete protection. De- 
sirous to end this horrible carnage, Jackson sent a friendly Indian 
to annciunce to them that their lives should be spared if they would 
surrender. They were silent for a moment, as if in consultation, and 
then answered the summons by a volley, which sent the interpreter 
bleeding from the scene. The cannon were now brought up, and 
played upon the spot without effect. Jackson then called for volun- 
teers to charge ; but the Indians were so well posted, that for a 
minute no one responded to the call. Ensign Houston again 
emerges into view on this occasion. Ordering his platoon to fol- 
low, but not waiting to see if they would follow, he rushed to the 
overhanging bank, which sheltered the foe, and through openings 
of which they were firing. Over this mine of desperate savages he 
paused, and looked back for his men. At that moment he received 
two balls in his right shoulder ; his arm fell powerless to his side ; 
he staggered out of the fire ; and lay down totally disabled. His 
share in that day's work was done. 

Several valuable lives w^ere afterward lost in vain endeavors to dis- 
lodge the enemy from their well-chosen covert. As the sun was 
going down, fire was set to the logs and underbrush, which over- 
spread and surrounded this last refuge of the Creeks. The place 
soon grew too hot to hold them. Singly, and by twos and threes, 
they ran from the ravine, and fell as they ran, before the fire of a , 
hundred I'iflemen on the watch for the starting of the game. 

The carnage lasted as long as there was light enough to see a 
skulking or a flying enemy. It was impossible to spare. The In- 
dians fought after they were wounded, and gave Avounds to men 
who sought to save their lives ; for they thought that if spared they 
would be spared only for a more painful death. Night fell at last, 
and recalled the troops from their bloody work to gather wounded 
comrades, and minister to their necessities. It was ;? night of hor- 
ror. Along the banks of the i'iver, all around the bend, Indians, the 
woimded and the unhiii-t, were crouching in the clefts, under the 



1814.] THE FINISHING BLOW. 171 

bruslnvood, and, in some instances, under the heaps of slain^ watdi- 
ing for an opportunity to escajDe. Many did escape, and some lay 
until the morning, fearing to attempt it. One noted chi.ef, covered 
with wounds, took to the water in the evening, and lay beneath the 
surface, drawing his breath through a hollow cane, until it was dark 
enough to swim across. He escaped, and lived to tell his story and 
show his scars, many years after, to the liistorian of Alabama, from 
whom we have derived the incident. In the morning, parties of the 
troops again scoured the peninsula, and ferreted from their hiding- 
places sixteen more Avarriors, who, refusing still to surrender, were 
added to the number of the slain. 

Upon counting the dead, five hundred and fifty-seven was found 
to be the number of the fiillen enemy within the peninsula. Two 
hundred more, it was computed, had found a, grave at the bottom 
of the river. Many more died in the woods attempting to escape. 
Jackson's loss was fifty-five killed, and one hundred and forty-six 
wounded ; of whom more than half were friendly Indians. The 
three prophets of the Creeks, fantastically dressed and decorated, 
were found among the dead. One of them, while engaged in his 
incantations, had received a grape-shot in his mouth, which killed 
him instantly. 

One would have expected General Jackson to pause in his opera- 
tions after such an aflair as that of the Horseshoe. Nothing was 
further from his thoughts. "In war," his maxim was, " till every 
thing is done, nothing is done." On the morning after the battle 
he began at once to prepare for a retrograde movement as far as 
Fort Williams, the fort which he had built on his march from Fort 
Strother. He had brought with him into the heart of the wilder- 
ness but seven days' provisions. Before pushing his conquests fur- 
ther, it was necessary both to procure supplies and place his long- 
train of Avounded in a place of safety and comfort. He Avas up be- 
times, therefore, and passed a busy morning. His dead Avere sunk 
in the river to prevent their being scalped by the returning saA^ages. 
Litters Avere prepared for the wounded. A brief, imperfect account 
of the battle Avas. dispatched to General Pinckney. Before the sun 
was many hours on his coui'se, all things were in readiness, and the 
army set out on its return. 

Five days' march brought them to- Fort Williams. Tliei'e the 
Abounded Avere cared for, the friendly Indians dismissed, and the 



172 LIFE OF ANDKEW JACKSON. • [1814. 

troops publicly thanked, praised, and congratulated. The praise of 
the general was the theme of every tongue. 

Provisions were not too abiindant there in the wilderness, and 
supplies were brought in with incredible difficulty aud toil. Jack- 
son!s next object was to form a junction Avith the southern army at 
the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, the holy ground of the 
Creeks, which their proj^hets told them no white man could tread 
and live. He had been assured by General Pinckney that as soon 
as the junction of the two armies was effected all difficulty with re- 
gard to provisions would be at an end, as superabundant supplies 
had been provided by the general government. Moreover, it was 
on this holy ground that the only body of Creeks that still main- 
tained a hostile attitude were assembled. 

For five days the troops rested from their labors at Fort Wil- 

• liams. Then they set out on their march through the pathless wilder- 
ness, leaving behind wagons and baggage, each man carrying eight 
days' provisions upon his back. Floods of rain converting swamps 
into lakes, rivulets into rivers, creeks into torrents, retarded their 
progress, and gave the Indians time to disperse. The latter days 
of April, however, found the troops on the holy ground, where a 
junction with part of the southern army was effected. 

But the war was over. The power of the Creeks was broken ; 
half their warriors were dead, the rest were scattered, and subdued 
in spirit. Fort Mims was indeed avenged. Jackson's amazing ce- 
lerity of movement, and particularly his last daring plunge into the 
wilderness, and his triumph over obstacles that would have deterred 
even an Indian force, quite baSled aiid confounded the unhappy 
Creeks. Against such a man they felt it vain to contend. The 
general had no sooner reached the holy ground and procured for his 
tired and hungry men the supplies they needed, than the chiefs be- 
gan to come into his camp and supplicate for peace. His reply to 
them was brief and stern. They must give proof, he said, of their 
submission, by returning to the north of his advanced post — Fort 
Williams. There they would be treated with, and the demands of 
the government made known to them. But first they must bring in 
Weathersford, who had led the attack on Fort Mims, and who could 
on no conditions be forgiven tlie part he had taken in that fearful 
massacre. It was not then known that that heroic chief had risked 

* his own life in attempting to save the women and children at Fort 



1814.] THE FINISHING BLOW. 11'6 

Mims. The whole army felt their revenge incomplete while he 
lived. 

In a few clays fourteen of the leading chiefs had given in their 
submission, and taken up their sorrowful march toward the des- 
ignated place. Those of the fallen tribe who despaired of making 
terms, and those whose spirit was not yet comi^letely crushed, fled 
into Florida, and there sowed the seed of future wars, the end of 
M'hich had not been reached while these pages were still under the 
writer's hands. 

Weathersford spared his brother chiefs the hazard of attempting 
his capture. His well-known surrender was the most striking in- 
cident of the war of 1812. Indeed, I know not where, in ancient 
legend or modern history, in epic poem or tragic drama, to find a 
scene more worthy to be called suhlime than that which now oq 
curred between this great chief and the conqueror of his tribe. 
And, though it reads more like a scene in one of our Indian plays 
than the record of a fact, it has the advantage of being perfectly 
well attested. There are gentlemen still living in Alabama, who, 
as neighbors and friends of Weathersford, had learned to confide in 
his word, who heard the story from his own lips ; and there are 
many in Tennessee and elseAvhere Avho heard it told by General 
Jackson and by members of his military family. 

Weathersford' s father was one of the class called, in the olden 
time, Indian-country men, that is, white inhabitants of the Indian 
country. Pie was a roving trader among the Creeks ; married an 
Indian woman of the fierce Seminole tribe ; accumulated property ; 
possessed, at length, a plantation and negroes ; became noted as a 
breeder of fine horses, and won prizes on the Alabama turf. His 
son William inherited his father's property, his father's love of 
horses, his father's thrift and strength of character ; but he drew 
from his Seminole mother something of the fierceness and taciturn 
grandeur of demeanor which belonged to the chiefs of her warlike 
tribe. He identified himself at all times with the Indians ; his 
tastes and pursuits were Indian ; he gloried in being an Indian 
chief He hunted the bear with the passion and skill of Tecumseh 
and David Crockett. In his person was united the regularity of 
features of the white man with the tall, straight, all-enduring frame, 
and dusky complexion of the Indian. His eyes were particularly 
fine and piercing. He could assume an overaweing dignity of 



174 ' LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

manner, and before the glance of his fiery anger few men could 
stand. The white men who were in later years liis neighbors and 
associates, represent him to have been a man of honor and human- 
ity. They looked upon him as a patriot who had done what he could 
to preserve the independent sovereignty of his tribe, and Avhose 
hands were unstained by blood dishonorably shed. 

That bold march across the wilderness brought the conqueror of 
the Creeks to the holy ground itself, and, at his approach, the 
force under Weathersford melted away, leaving him alone in the 
forest with a multitude of women and children, whom the war had 
made widows and orphans, and who were perishing for want of 
food. To this sad extremity had Weathersford brought the tribe. 
Then it was that he gave that shining example of humanity and 
heroism that ought to immortalize his name. He might have fled 
with others of the war party to Florida, where welcome and pro- 
tection awaited him. He chose to remain, and to attempt by the 
sacrifice of his own life to save from imminent starvation the women 
and children whose natural protectors he had led or urged to their 
death. 

• Mounting his gray steed he directed his course to Jackson's 
camp, in the peninsula formed by the confluence of the Coosa and 
Tallapoosa. The general had planted his colors upon the site of the 
old French fort Toulouse, erected by Governor Bienville, a hundred 
years before. The French trenches were cleared of the accumu- 
lated rubbish of a century, a stockade was erected in the American 
manner, and the place named Fort Jackson, The two rivers ap- 
proach at that point to within six hundred yards of each other, and 
then diverging, unite four miles below. 

The hunting instinct must have been strong indeed in Weathers- 
ford, for when he was only a few miles from Fort Jackson, a fine 
deer crossing his path and stopping within shooting distance, he 
could not resist the temptation, but shot the deer and placed it on his 
horse behind the saddle. J?.eloading his rifle with two balls, for 
the purpose, as he afterward said, of shooting the Big Warrior (a 
leading chief of the peace pai'ty) if he should give him any cause, 
he pursued his journey, and soon reached the advanced outposts of 
the American camp. With the politeness natural to the brave he 
inquired of a group of soldiers Avhere General Jackson was. They 
gave him some jesting reply, but an old man standing near pointed 



1814. J THE FINISHING BLOW. 175 

to the general's tent, and the fearless chief rode up to it. Before 
the entrance of the tent sat the Big Warrior, who, on seeing 
Weathersford, cried out in an insulting tone, 

" Ah ! Bill Weathersford, have we got you at last ?" 
With a glance of fire at the insulter, Weathersford replied, 

«<You traitor! if you give me any insolence, I will blow 

a ball through your cowardly heart !" 

General Jackson now came running out of the tent, accompanied 
by Colonel Hawkins, the agent of the Creeks. 

" How dare you," exclaimed the general, in a furious manner, 
" ride up to my tent after having murdered the women and chil- 
dren at Fort Mims ?" f • 
Weathersford's reply, according to his own recollection ot it, 

was as follows: 

" General Jackson, I am not afraid of you. I fear no man, tor i 
am a Creek warrior. I have nothing to request in behalf of my- 
self. You cau kill me if you desire. But I come to beg you to 
send for the women and children of the war party, who are now 
starving in the woods. Their fields and cribs have been destroyed 
by your people, who have driven them to the woods without aif 
ear of corn. I hope that you will send out parties, who will conduct 
them safely here, in order that they may be fed. I exerted myself 
in vain to JDrevent the massacre of the women and children at Fort 
Mims. I am now done fighting. The Red Sticks are nearly all 
killed. K I could fight you any longer, I would most heartily do 
so. Send for the women and children. They never ^did you any 
harm. But kill me, if the white people want it done." 

When he ceased to speak, a great crowd of oflicers and soldiers 
had gathered round the tent. Accustomed now for many months 
to associate the name of Weathersford with the oft-told horrors of 
the massacre, and hnperfectly comprehending what was going for- 
ward, the troops cast upon the chief glances of hatred and aversion. 
Many of them cried out, 

" Kill him ! kill him ! kill him !" 

" Silence," exclaimed Jackson, and the clamor was hushed. 
"Any man," added the general, with great energy, " who would 
kill as brave a man as this, would rob the dead 1" 

He then invited Weathersford to alight and enter his tent, which 
the chief did, bringing in with him the deer he had killed on the 



176 LIFE OF ANBBEW JACKSON! [1814. 

way, and presenting it to tlie general. Jackson accepted the gift, 
im'ited Weathersford to drink a glass of brandy, and entered into, 
a frank and friendly conversation witli him. The remainder of the 
interview rests upon the authority of Major Eatoji, who, Mr. Pickett 
thinks, based this portion of his narrative " entirely upon camp 
gossip." Eaton must have heard the story many times from Jack- 
son himself, and, though he may have added to the tale a slight 
presidential campaign flavor, there is no good reason to doubt its 
general correctness. 

"The terms uj^on which your nation can be saved," said the gen- 
eral, "• have been already disclosed : in that way, and none other, 
can you obtain safety. If you wish to continue the war," Jackson 
added, " you are at liberty to depart unliarmed, but if you desire 
peace, you may remain, and you shall be protected," 

Weathersford replied that he desired peace in order that his na- 
tion might be relieved of their sufferings, and the women and chil- 
dren saved. " There was a time," he said, " when I had a choice, 
and could have answered you ; I have none now — even hope has 
ended. Once I could animate my warriors to battle, but I can not 
animate the dead. My warriors can no longer hear my voice : 
their bones are at Talladega, Tallushatchee, Emuckfau, and Toho- 
peka. I have not surrendered myself thoughtlessly. Whilst there 
were chances of success, I never left my post, nor supplicated peace. 
But my people are gone, and I now ask it for my nation and for 
myself. On the miseries and misfortunes brought upon my coun- 
try, I look back with deepest sorrow, and wish to avert still greater 
calamities. If I had been left to contend with the Georgia army, I 
would have raised my corn on one bank of the river, and fought 
them on the other ; but your people have destroyed my nation. 
You are a brave man; I rely upon your generosity. You will 
exact no terms of a conquered people but such as they should ac- 
cede to : whatever they may be, it would now be madness and 
folly to oppose. If they are opposed, you shall find me among the 
sternest enforcers of obedience. Those who would still hold out, 
can be influenced only by a mean spirit of revenge ; and to this they 
must not, and shall not, sacrifice the last remnant of their country. 
You have told our nation where we might go, and be safe. This 
is good talk, and they ought to listen to it. They shall Usten 
to it." 



1814.] THE FINISHING BLOW. 177 

Tlic iutervievv conckuled. For a short time Weathersford re- 
mained at Fort Jackson, and then retired to his plantation upon 
Little River. 

When the war was over, Weathersfai'd again became a planter, 
and lived many years, in peace with white men and. red, upon a good 
farm, " well supplied with negroes," in Monroe county, Alabama. 
" He maintained," adds the historian of that state, " an excellent 
character, and was much respected by the American residents for 
his bravery, honor, and strong native good sense. He died in 1826, 
from the fatigue produced by a ' desperate bear hunt.' " 

With the establishment of Fort Jackson in the holy ground, at 
the confluence of the two rivers, General Jackson's task was nearly 
Aone. For a few days he was busy enough in receiving deputations 
of repentant and crest-fallen chiefs, and in sending out strong de- 
tachments of troops to scour the country in search of hostile 
parties, if any such still kept the field. No hostile parties were 
found. 

The friendly Creeks, however, gave some ti'ouble by their excess 
of zeal. Attributing the calamities brought upon their tribe to the 
massacre at Fort Mims, they were bent uj^on putting to death every 
man that had taken part in that scene of horrors. Bodies and single 
individuals of the hostile" portion of the tribe v/ere Avaylaid and killed 
by roving companies of their own countrymen. A war of exter- 
mination would have ensued, had not General Jackson, in his deci- 
sive manner, announced that any of the friendly party who should 
molest a Red Stick after he had surrendered, and while he was obey- 
ing the orders of the general, should be treated as enemies of the 
United States, This stayed the work of blood, and the Indians con- 
tinued to repair to the northern part of Alabama, which had been 
assigned for their temporaiy residence. Fort Jackson completed 
the line of posts which separated them from the hostile Indians, the 
hostile British, and the sympathizing Spaniards of Florida. 

In the beginning of May, 1814, a few days after the news of the 
battle of the Horseshoe reached Washington, a brigadier-general- 
ship fell vacant, Avhich the president was induced to offer to Gen- 
eral Jackson. Before it was known whether the offer would be ac- 
cepted, the unhappy misunderstanding between the secretary of 
war and General William Henry Harrison resulted in the resigna- 
tion of that brave officer and honest gentleman. Whether it was 
8* 



178 LIFE OF -ANDREW JACKSOX. [1814. 

the haste of tlie secretary to shelve an officer disagreeable to him, 
or the growing eclat of Jackson's victories, or both of these causes 
together, that induced the government to accept the resignation, 
and offer the vacancy to Jackson, is a matter of no importance 
now. The tiling was done. Jackson received the offer of the brig- 
adiership ; and Avhile he was considering the question of acceptance 
or rejection, the mail of the day following brought him the second 
offer, which he accepted promptly and gladly. It was a reward 
which he desired and felt to be due to his standing and services. 
The National Intelligencer of May 31st, 1814, contained the an- 
nouncement in the usual form : — 

" Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, is appointed major-general in 
the army of the United States, vice William Henry Harrison re- 
signed." 

The emoluments of his new rank were of importance to General 
Jackson, for he was by no means a rich man in 1814. The pay of 
a major-general in the army of the United States was twenty-four 
hundred dollars a year ; with allowances for rations, forage, serv- 
ants and transportation, that swelled the income to an average of 
about six thousand five hundred dollars. It was never less than 
six thousand dollars. 

The legislature of Mississippi territory, about the same time, 
voted General Jackson a sword, which was the first of the many 
similar gifts bestowed upon him during his military career. 

It is worthy of remark, in view of succeeding events, that no 
less than six generals had stood between Jackson and the likeli- 
hood of his being intrusted with the defense of the South-west. 
First, General Wilkinson was -transferred from New Orleans to the 
North-west, where his failure was sigpal. Next, Brigadier-General 
Hampton resigned. Third, Major-General William Henry Harri- 
son resigned. Fourth, General Flourney, who succeeded Wilkin- 
son at New Orleans, resigned. Fifth, General Howard, of Ken- 
tucky, who was dispatched to succeed Flourney, died before reach- 
ing his post. Sixth, General Gaines, sent from Washington in 
haste when the first alarm for New Orleans was felt by the admin- 
istration, did not arrive till all was over. And all these singular 
and unexpected changes occurred within the space of a very few 
months. 

The effects of Jackson's eight months' service upon his health 



1814.] T H E F I N I S H I N (; B L O W . 179 

wore pcraiauently injurious. In reading of his exploits, we figure 
to ourselves a man in the enjoyment of the full tide of health. 
How different was the fact! From the moment of his being 
wounded in the affray with the Bentons, to the close of the war, 
he was so much an invalid, that a man of less strength of will 
would probably have yielded to the disease, and spent his days in 
nursing it. Chronic diarrhoea was the form which his complaint as- 
sumed. The slightest imprudence in eating or drinking brought 
on an attack, during which he suffered intensely. While the par- 
oxysm lasted, he could obtain relief only by sitting on a chair with 
his chest against the back of it, and his arms dangling forward. In 
this position he M'as sometimes compelled to remain for hours. It 
often happened that he was seized with the familiar pain while on 
the march through the woods at the head of the troops. In the ab- 
sence of other means of relief, he would have a sapling half severed 
and bent over, upon which he Avould hang with his arms down- 
ward, till the agony subsided. The only medicine that he took, 
and his only beverage then, was weak gin and water. The reader 
is, therefore, to banish from his imagination the popular figure of a 
vigorous warrior galloping in the pride of his strength upon a fiery 
charger : and put in the place of it, a slight attenuated form, a yel- 
lowish, wrinkled face, the dark blue eyes of which were the only 
feature that told any thing of the power and quality of the man. 
In great emergencies, it is true, his loill was master, compelling his 
impaired body to execute all its resolves. But the reaction was 
terrible sometimes : days of agony and prostration following an 
hour of anxiety or exertion. He gradually learned, in some de- 
gree, to manage and control his disease. But, all through the 
Creek war, and the ISTew Orleans campaign, he was an acute suf- 
ferer, more fit for a sick chambei* than the forest bivouac or the 
field of battle. There were times, and critical times, too, when it 
seemed impossible that he could go on. But, at the decisive mo- 
ment, he always rallied, and would do what the decisive moment 
demanded. 

General Jackson rested from his labors three weeks. As soon as 
his acceptance of the major-generalship reached Washington, be 
was ordered to take command of the southern division of the army, 
if division it could be called, which consisted of three half-tilled 
regimepts. * He Avas ordered to halt, on his way to the southern 



180 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON, [1814. 

coast, long enough to form a definite ti-eaty with the Creeks, or 
rather to announce to them the terms upon whicli the United States 
would consent to a permanent peace. Colonel Hawkins, who had 
been the agent for the Creeks since the days of General Washing- 
ton, was associated with the general in this business. On the 10th 
of July, General Jackson, with a small retinue, reached the holy 
ground once more, the place appointed for meeting the chiefs ; 
where he assumed the command of the troops, and prepared to begin 
the negotiation. 

The instructions from the secretary of war set forth that terms 
were to be dictated to the Creeks, as to a conquered people. The 
commissioners were to demand, first, an indenmification for the ex- 
penses incurred by the United States in the prosecution of the war, 
by such a cession of land as might be deemed an equivalent; sec- 
ondly, a stipulation on the part of the Creeks that they would cease 
all intercourse with any Spanish garrison or town, and not admit 
among tlieni any agent or trader who did not derive his authoiity 
or license from the United States ; thirdly, an acknowledgment of 
the right of the United States to open roacls through the Creek ter- 
ritory, and to establish such military posts and trading houses as 
might be necessary and proper ; and, lastly, the surrender of the 
prophets and instigators of the war. 

An outline of a treaty, in accordance with these principles, was 
promptly submitted by the commissioners to the council of chiefs ; 
an engagement being added, that, in consideration of tlie destitute 
condition of the tribe, supi^lies would be furnished by the United 
States until the maturity of the next crop. After a delay of a whole 
month in negotiation, the treaty was signed by the chiefs and the 
commissioners, and General Jackson, accompanied by his stafi" and 
a few troops, directed his steps toward Mobile. Rumors of the 
great British expedition against New Orleans already alarmed the 
southern country. British troops indeed were already in Florida. 



1814.1 DEFJiNSE OF AlOBILE. 181 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

DEFENSE OF MOBILE. 

It may have surprised the reader that a commander so remarka- 
ble for celerity of movement as General Jackson, should have lin- 
o-ered a whole month at the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, 
concluding a treaty with the Creeks. But that was by no means 
his principal employment there, as shall now be shown. 

All that summer he had had a watchful, and frequently a wrath- 
ful eye on Florida. That the flying Creeks should have been af- 
forded a refuge in that province, first moved him to anger ; for it 
was the nature of Andrew Jackson to finish whatever he undertook. 
He went, as Colonel Benton often remarked, for " a clean victory or 
a clean defeat." As long as there was, anywhere on earth, o?ie 
Creek maintaining an attitude of hostility against the United States, 
he felt his work incomplete, and regarded any man, or governor, as 
an enemy who gave that solitary warrior aid and comfort. Bemg 
a man with less of the spirit of the circumlocution otHce in him than 
• any other individual then extant ; a man, in fact, with not a shred 
of red tape in his composition, the impulse of his mind was to 
march straight into the heart of Florida, and extinguish the hostile 
remnant of the Creeks without more ado. That, however, was a 
measure of which he was not ready to assume the whole responsi- 
bility yet. 

Even on his way from the Hermitage to Fort Jackson, a rumor 
reached his ears that a British vessel was at Appalachicola, landing 
arms for distribution among the Indians. His first act, therefore, 
on arriving at the treaty ground, was to select, by the aid of 
Colonel Hawkins, some trustworthy Indians to send to Appalachi- 
cola, to ascertain what was going on there. Before they returned, 
a piece of very tangible evidence of the truth of the rumor reached 
him in the form of a new musket, of English manufacture,^ which 
had been given to a Creek of the peace party by a friend of his at 
Appalachicola, only a week before. We can imagine the feelings 
and the manner of Jackson as he handled, examined, and descanted 
upon this shining weapon. The owner of the musket, upon being 



182 LIFE OF ANDREW JACK SOX. [1814. 

questioned, stated that a party of British troops were at Appalachi- 
cola, giving out arms and ammunition to all of the hostile Indians 
that applied for them. 

In fifteen days the friendly Indians returned to Fort Jackson, 
confirming thci testimony of the new musket and its proprietor. 
Soon came rumors that a large force of British were expected at 
Pensacola, and, at length, positive information of the landing of 
Colonel Nichols, of the welcome he had received from the Spanish 
governor, and of his extraordinary proceedings. 

Florida must he ours was thenceforth the burthen of General 
Jackson's secret thoughts, communicated only to two or three of 
his most confidential oflicers. Florida must he oicrs was the bur- 
then of his letters to the secretary of war. " If the hostile Creeks," 
he wrote to the secretary, " have taken refuge in Florida, and are 
there fed, clothed, and protected ; if the British have landed a large 
force, munitions of Avar, and are fortifying and stirring up the sav- 
ages ; will you only say to me, raise a few hundred militia, which 
can be quickly done, and with such regular force as can be conven- 
iently collected, make a descent upon Pensacola, and reduce it? 
If so, I promise you the war in the south sliall have a speedy termi- 
nation, and English influence be forever destroyed with the savages 
in this quarter." 

The answer of Secretary Armstrong to this letter, whether from 
accident or design will never be known, was six months on its way 
from Washington to the hands of General Jackson. It reached 
him at New Orleans when the campaign and the w^ar w^ere over. 
It gave him all the authority he desired. 

" If this letter," he would say in after years, " or any hint that 
such a course would have been even winked at by the government, 
had been received, it would have been in my power to have cap- 
tured the British shipping in the bay. I would have marched at 
once against Barrancas, and carried it, and thus prevented any es- 
cape ; but, acting on my oAvn responsibility against a neutral power, 
it became essential for me to proceed with more caution than my 
judgment or wishes approved, and consequently important advan- 
tages were lost, wdiich might have been secured." 

Colonel Nichols, taking no precautions wdiatever to conceal his 
designs, but rather courting publicity, General Jackson was kept 
well informed of what was transpiring in Florida. Early in Sep- 



13^4.1 DEFENSE OF MOBILE. 183 

tember it was noised about in Pensacola, and soon reported to Gen- 
eral Jaekson, that Colonel Nichols had hostile designs upon Mobile 
The o-eneral's mind, from that moment, was made up. He would 
dally^io longer with a secretary of war a month distant ; he would 
take the responsibility ; he wo\ild fight the southern campaign him- 
self, as best he could, orders or no orders. Ah-eady he had written 
to the governors of Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi, urging 
them to complete the oi-anization of their militia ; " for, ^ said he, 
" there is no telUng when or where the spoiler may come. -Uark 
and heavy clouds," he said in another letter, "hover around us 
The energy and patriotism of the citizens of your states must dispel 
them. Our rights, our liberties, and free Constitution are threat- 
ened This noble patrimony of our fathers must be defended with 
the best blood of our country : to do this, you must hasten to carry 
into eifect the requisition ^of the secretary of war, and call torth 
your troops without delay." t . . 

On the 9th of September, Colonel Butler, Jackson s. adjutant- 
o-eneral, who had been sent to Tennessee to hasten the organization 
of the new levies in that state, received the welcome o«]f^fr«;^^ 
J-ickson to call out the troops, and march them, with all dispatch, 
southward toward Mobile. The call was obeyed with far gi;^ater 
alacrity than that of the last year, when the massacre of Fort Mims 
was to be avenged. General Coffee was promptly m the field once 
more Such was the eagerness of the Tennesseeans to share a cam- 
TDaien with General Jackson, that considerable sums, ranging from 
thii ty to eighty dollars, were paid for the privilege of bemg substi- 
tutes for tbose who could not go. On the appointed day, two 
thousand men appeared at the rendezvous, well armed and equipped, 
ready to march with General Coffee; four hundred miles to the 
scene of expected combat. At the same time a small body o i-e- 
cruit. for the regular army set out from Nashville toward Mobile. 
Colonel Butler, as soon as he had completed his business m Tennessee 
hurried forward to conduct to the same place the forces stationed 
at the posts Avhich had been established during the late Creek war. 
^lobile, that is now a city of thirty thousand inhabitants, yield- 
in<T the precedence among the cotton marts of the world only to its 
o-°eat neighbor. New Orleans, was an insignificant village of a hun- 
dred and fifty houses when Jackson arrived there to defend it m 
the latter part of August, 18lf. Like Pensacola, it derived what- 



184 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

ever importauce it had from the bay at the head of which it was 
situated, and the great river system of which that bay is the outlet. 

The coast of tlie Gulf of Mexico is curiously adapted by nature 
for the purposes of defense. Broad, lake-like bays protect some 
parts of the coast by their shallowness. The bays into Avhich the 
rivers flow have a general resemblance to the bay of Mobile, which 
runs up thirty miles inland, and has an average breadth of twelve 
miles. A cluster of small, low islands lie ofl' the entrance to this 
fine sheet of water, and a long strip of an island slants across the 
entrance, serving as a breakwater to the mighty billows of the Gulf, 
and rendering the bay at once safe, easily defended, and difficult of 
access. A long, low, sandy peninsula reaches out from the main- 
land toward this island, and terminates in Mobile Point, close to 
Avhich runs the narrow channel, and the only channel by which 
vessels of any magnitude can enter the bay. Place twenty well- 
served and well-protected pieces of cannon upon Mobile Point, and 
you are master of a hundred miles of Gulf coast, of Mobile, and of 
all that fertile region watered by the great rivers that unite to flow 
into Mobile Bay. It was as lonely, silent, and desolate a shore, 
down there at the mouth of the bay, as ever disheartened an invad- 
ing host. 

When General Jackson reached Mobile, he found it little better 
j)repared for defense against any but an Indian foe, than if war 
were unknown to the civilized part of mankind. There were some 
block-houses and stockades in the town, but no structure that could 
resist artillery. Nor, indeed, was there need of any, for the place 
was to be defended or lost at Mobile Point, thirty miles down the 
bay. If Colonel Nichols and Captain Percy had touched at the 
Point on their way to Pensacola, and landed two hundred men 
there, they would have given General Jackson much more trouble 
than they did. There was nothing to hinder their doing so at the 
time. 

To Mobile Point Jackson repaired soon after his arriA'al at Mo- 
bile. There he found the remains of that fortification which Avill 
be known to posterity as Fort Bowyer, though the name has since 
been most unpatriotically and immorally changed to Fort Morgan. 
Incomplete, and yet falling into ruin, without a bombproof, and 
mounting but two twenty-four pounders, six twelves, and twelve 
smaller pieces, it was plain that F(Tl-t Bowyer was Mobile's chance 



18T4.] DEFENSE OF MOBILE. 185 

of safety. It had been untenanted for a yeai- or more, and contained 
nothing of the means of defense except cannons and cannon balls. 
For the information of unjirofessional readers, it is enough to say 
that the fort was a semicircular structure, with such additional out- 
works as were necessary to enable it to command the all-important 
channel, the peninsula, and the open sea. It was surrounded by a 
ditch twenty feet wide. Its weak point was similar to that by 
which Fort Ticonderoga. was once taken : it was overlooked by 
some tall hillocks of sand within cannon range. 

Into this fort General Jackson, with all haste, threw a garrison 
of one hundred and sixty men, commanded by Major Lawrence of 
the second regiment of United States infantry (a relative of "Don't 
give up the Ship "), as gallant a spirit as ever stood to his country's 
defense. A large proportion of the Uttle garrison wore totally 
ignorant of gunnery, and had to learn the art by practicing it in 
fighting the enemy. The first twelve days in September were em- 
ployed by them in repairing the essential parts of the fortification, 
Avhile General Jackson was busy on shore dispatching provisions 
and ammunition, and counting over and over again the days that 
must elapse before he could reasonably expect the arrival of reen- 
forcements. 

No signs of an enemy appeared till the morning of the 12th of 
September, Avhen an out-sentinel came running in with the rej^ort- 
that a body of British marines and Indians had landed on the pen- 
insula, within a few miles of the fort. Colonel Nichols, it after- 
ward appeared, was the commander of this detachment, which con- 
sisted, according to American, writers, of one hundred and thirty 
marines and six hundred Ind.ians ; according to James, the English 
historian, of sixty marines and one hundred and twenty Indians. 
Captain Woodbme commanded the Indian part of this force. To- 
ward evening of the same day four British vessels of war hove in 
sight, and came to anchor near the coast, six miles from the Point. 
These proved to be the Hermes, Captain Percy, twenty-two guns ; 
the Sophia, in command of Captain Lockyer, eighteen guns ; the 
Car»on, twenty guns ; and the Childers, eighteen guns ; the whole 
under the command of Captain Percy. 

Night fell upon the fleet, the land force and the anxious garrison, 
without any movement having been^ttempted on either side. The 
garrison slept upon their arms, every man at his post. 



186 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

The next day a reconnoitering party approaclied witliin tliree- 
quartcrs of a mile and then retired. A little after noon Colonel 
Nichols drew a howitzer, the only one he had with him, behind a 
mound seven hundred yards from the fort. He fired three shells 
and a cannon-ball, which splintered a piece of timber that crowned 
part of the rampart, but did no other damage. The garrison, with- 
out behig able to see the enemy, fired a few shots in the direction 
of the mcJund. Under cover of other sand-hills, Nichols then with- 
drew his party to a point a mile and a half distant, where he ap- 
peared to be throwing up a breastwork. Three well-aimed shots 
from the fort again dispersed the party, and drove them beyond 
range, within which they did not return that day. Later in the 
afternoon several small boats put off from the ships, and attempted 
to sound the cbnnnel near Mobile Point. A few discharges of ball 
and grape drove them ofl^ also, and they returned to the ships. 
Night again closed in upon the scene, and the garrison again went 
to sleep upon their arms, encouraged and confident. 

As soon as it was light enough to discern distant objects on the 
following morning, the enemy was seen at the same place, still en- 
gaged, as it seemed, in throwing up works, the shipS remaining at 
their former anchorage. As the morning wore away without any 
further movement, Major Lawrence concluding that the enemy de- 
signed to take the fort by regular approaches, thought it most pru- 
dent to send an express to General Jackson, informing him of the 
enemy's arrival, and asking a reenforcement. It so chanced that 
Jackson had set out on that very morning to visit the fort, and had 
sailed to within a few miles of it when he met the boat bearing 
Major Lawrence's message. Back to Mobile he hurried, his barge- 
men straining every nerve. He reached the town late at night, 
where he instantly mustered a body of eighty men, under the com- 
mand of Captain Laval, hurried them on board a small brig, and 
saw them off toward Mobile Point before he left the shore. At the 
fort the whole day passed in inaction. Night came on apace, and 
once more the beleaguered garrison lay upon their arms, wonder- 
ing what the morrow would bring forth. 

Day dawned upon the 15th of September. Straining eyes from 
the summit of the fort sought to penetrate the morning mist. 
Gradually the low, dark line oT the enemy's bivouac, and then the 
dim outline of the more distant ships, became visible. There they 



1814. J DEFENSE OF MOBILE. IS*? 

■ncre, unchanged from the day before. Are we to liave another 
*day, then, of puzzle .and inactivity ? As the morning cleared it was 
observed that there was an unwonted stir and movement among 
the enemy. There was a marching hither and thither upon the 
peninsula ; boats were passing and repassing between the shore and 
the ships ; and all those nameless indications were noticed which 
announce that something absorbing and decisive is on foot. There 
is a magnetism in the vei-y air on such occasions which conveys an 
intimation of coming events to the high-strained, nerves of belliger- 
ent men. Still, hour after hour passed on, and the ships lay at 
anchor, and the busy troops upon the shore made no advance. 

An hour before noon the wind, which had been fresh, fell to a 
light breeze, fovorable for a movement of the squadron. The ships 
now weighed anchor, and stood out to sea ; the little garrison look- 
ing out over the ramparts and through the port-holes with an 
interest that no human being, who has never taken part in such a 
scene, can begin to imagine. For nearly three hours the ships beat 
up against the light wind, away from the fort, till they were hull- 
down in the blue gulf. Have they given it up, then, without a trial? 
At two o'clock in the afternoon they were observed to tack, get 
before the wind, and bear down toward the fort in line of battle, 
the Hermes leading. The suspense was over. They were going to 
attack ! In two hours they will be upon us ! • 

Then Major Lawrence, in the true spirit of a classical hero, called 
his oflBcers together to concert the requisite measures. "Don't 
GIVE UP THE Fort," Avas adopted as the signal for tlte day, and it 
did but express the unanimous feeling of the garrison. The officers, 
while agreeing' to defend the fort as long as it was tenable, defined, 
also, the terms upon which alone the survivors should surrender. 
These were the w^ords of their resolution, deliberately concluded 
upon while the fleet was approaching, and the force on the penin- 
sula was preparing for simultaneous attack : — 

" That in case of being, by imperious necessity, compelled to 
surrender (which could only happen in the l^st extremity, on the 
ramparts being entirely battered down, and the garrison almost 
wholly destroyed, so th*at any further resistance would be evidently 
useless), no capitulation should be agreed on, unless it had for its 
fundamental article that the officers and privates should retain their 
arms and their private property, and that on no pretext should the 



188 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

Indians be suffered to commit any outrage on their persofis or prop- 
erty ; and unless full assurance were given them that they would be 
treated as prisoners of ^var, acc'ording to the custom established 
among civilized nations." 

The officers ratifed this resolution by an oath, each man solemnly 
swearing to abide by it in any and every extremity. Now, every 
man to his post, and Don't give up the Fort ! 

At four o'clock the Hermes came within reach of the fort's great 
guns. A few shots were exchanged with little effect. One by one 
the other vessels came up and gave the garrison some practice at 
long range ; but no great harm was done them. At 'half-past 
four Captain Percy, like the gallant sailor that he was, ran the 
Hermes right into the nari'ow channel that leads into the bay, 
dropped anchor within musket shot of the fort, and turned his 
broadside to its guns. The other vessels followed his brave example 
and anchored in the channel, one behind the other, all within reach 
of the long guns of the fort, though considerably more distant from 
them than the Hermes. 

Then arose a thundering cannonade. Broadside after broadside 
from the ships ; the fort replying by a steady, quick fire, that Avas 
better and better directed as the fight went on. Meanwhile Captain 
Woodbine, from behind a bluff in the shore, opened fire from his 
howitzer ; but a few shots from the fort's south battery silenced 
him, and compelled him for a time to keep his distance. 

For an hour the firing continued on both sides without a moment's 
pause ; the fleet and the fort enveloped in huge volumes of smoke, 
lighted up by the incessant flash of the guns. At half-past five, the 
halliards of the Hermes' flag were severed by a shot, and the flag 
fell into the hell of fire and suioke below. Major LaAvrence, think- 
it possible the ship might have surrendered, ceased his fire. A 
silence of five minutes succeeded the dreadful roar ; at the expira- 
tion of which a new flag fluttered up to the mast-head of the 
commodore's ship, and the Sophia that lay next her renewed the 
strife by firing a whole broadside at once. In the interval every 
gun in the fort had been loaded, and the broadside was returned 
with a salvo that shook the earth. A mostTurious firing succeeded, 
and continued for some time longer without any important mishap 
occurring on either side. 

At length, a shot from the fort, a lucky shot indeed for tte little 



1814.J DEFENSE OF MOBILE. 189 

garrison, cut the cable of the Hermes! The current of the channel 
in which she lay canght her heavy stern, and turned her bow-fore- 
most to the fort, where she lay for twenty minutes raked from bow 
to stern by a terrible fire. At this time it was that the flag-staff of the 
fort was shot away. The ships, it is to be presumed, either because 
they did not perceive the absence of the flag, or because they knew 
the cause of its absence, redoubled their firing at the moment ; 
while Captain Woodbhie and his whooping savages, supposing the 
fort had surrendered, ran up to seize their prey. A few discharges 
of grape drove the Indians howling back behind the hillocks out of 
sight, and another flag, fastened hastily to a sponging rod, waa 
raised above the ramparts. 

The Hermes, totally unmanageable, her decks swept of every man 
and every thing, drifted slowly along with the current for half a 
mile, and then ran aground. Still exposed to the fire, and damaged 
in every part by the hail of shot she had received, it was impossible 
either to save or fight her. Captain Percy, therefore, got out his 
wounded men, transferred them to the Sophia, set his ship on 
fire, and abandoned her to her fate. Then the Sophia, which was 
also severely crippled, contrived with difliculty to get out of range. 
The two other vessels, which were not seriously harmed, hoisted 
sail, and departed to tiieir old anchorage ofi" the coast. The fort 
guns continued to play upon the Hermes till dark, when the fire 
burst through her hatches, and lighted up the scene with more than 
the brilliancy of the day. At eleven o'clock she blew up with an ex- 
plosion that was heard by General Jackson at Mobile, thirty miles 
distant. 

When the next day dawned, Nichols, Woodbine, marines, Indi- 
ans, had vanished from the peninsula. The three vessels were still 
in sight, but early in the afternoon they weighed atrchor, stood to 
sea, and were seen no more. 

Then the heroic little garrison came forth exulting from their 
battered walls, surveyed the scene of the late ei^pounter, and reck- 
oned up their victory. Four of their number lay dead within the fort. 
Four others were wounded in the battle. Six men had been injured 
by the bursting of some cartridges. Both of the great twenty-four 
pounders were cracked beyond using. Two guns had been knocked 
off" their carriages ; one had burst ; one had been broken short off" 
by a thirty-two pound ball. The walls of the fort showed the 



190 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

holes and marks of three hundred balls, and the ground about the 
fort was plowed into ridges. Thoiigh but twelve pieces had. been 
brought to bear upon the fleet, the stock of cannon-balls had been 
diminished by seven hundred. The wreck of the gallant Hermes 
lay near by, her guns visible in the clear water of the channel. 

The garrison were ignorant, as yet, of the name, the force, and the 
loss of the enemy. They knew not whence they had come, whither 
they were gone, nor how soon they might return in greater num- 
bers to renew the attack. In the course of the day, two marines, 
deserters from the party under Colonel Nichols, came in, and gave 
the eager garrison all the information they desired. They re- 
ported the British loss at one hundred and sixty-two killed and 
seventy wounded. This was an exaggeration. The real loss of 
the English, as officially given by themselves, was thirty-two killed 
and forty wounded. x\mong the wounded Avas Colonel Nichols 
himself, who lost an eye in one of his reconnoiterings. The desert- 
ers stated that the ships had returned to Pensacola, leaving the 
marines and Indians to march back to the same place as best they 
could. 

But where was the brig with Captain Laval's eighty men, whom 
General Jackson had sent to reenforce Fort Bowyer ? The adven- 
tures of that vessel were remarkable, almost to the degree of being 
ludicrous. 

Arriving in the vicinity of the fort as the battle was beginning, 
and unable to land his men in such a storm of cannon-balls as soon 
swept the peninsula. Captain Laval withdrew his vessel to a sheltered 
part of the shore, a few miles distant, intending to wait till the 
darkness of the night should enable him to land and march in. Un- 
luckily, he Avithdrew to too remote a place for him to comprehend 
the issue of the strife. Night came, but not darkness. The confla- 
gi'ation that illumined the scene of contest Captain Laval concluded 
must be the burning of the resinous pine timbers that formed part 
of the fortifications. And when the great explosion occurred, lifting 
the little brig half out of water, nothing Avas more natural than for 
him to suppose that the fort had blown up, and that the garrison 
was taken or destroyed. Regarding the capture of the brig as in- 
evitable if he remained Avhere he was till daylight, Laval hoisted 
sail, and made a SAvift voyage of it back to Mobile and Genera! 
Jackson. 



1814.] KXPELS THE ENGLISH FROM P EMS AC OLA. 191 

A day of more agonizing anxiety Jackson never passed than the 
15th of September, 1814. Compelled to remain inactive, knowing 
well the importance to the campaign of the result of that day's 
Avork, aware of the enemy's superior force, and of the garrison's in- 
experience, he paced the shore of Mobile Bay, not without fear that 
the next news from the Point would loom up from the horizon in the 
form of a British fleet in full sail toward the town. The dull thun- 
der of the explosion only told him that something had occurred at 
the mouth of the bay. On the morning of the 16th the brig hove 
in sight, and Laval's crushing intelligence was soon reported to the 
general. At first, he woiild not believe it. He declared that the 
explosion had come from the water, not the shore. Yielding, at 
length, to the united force of strong probability and positive testi- 
mony, he resolved, on the instant, to retake Mobile Point at every 
hazard. Retaken it must be, or the campaign was lost ; retaken it 
must be, or the Creek war had been fought in vain ; retaken it must 
be, or the arrogant boasting of Colonel Nichols was made good. The 
requisite orders were issued ; the troops were mustering. And it 
was in the midst of preparation for speedy departure down the pen- 
insula that an express arrived from Major Lawrence with the glo- 
rious truth of yesterday's events, thrilling every heart in Mobile, and 
sending the troops rejoicing back to their quarters. 



CHAPTER XLX. 

JACKSON EXPELS THE ENGLISH FROM PENSACOLA. 

After the defense of Fort Bowyer, General Jackson had to en- 
dure six weeks of most intolerable waiting. Nothing could be done 
before the arrival of the troops from Tennessee. To the tedium of 
delay was added a torturing uncertainty with i-egard to the nature, 
the extent, the proximity of the impending danger. If a powerful 
expedition shoidd arrive, which rumor with a thousand tongues 
foretold, to which so many probabilities pointed. New Orleans was 
open to its approach, and Fort Bowyer, with its battered ramparts 
and cracked guns, could make but a poor and brief resistance. It 



192 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

is not surprising that during these weeks, the chronic malady under 
which the general suffered should have given him many a pang, and 
freqtiently laid him prostrate for many successive hours. His at- 
tenuated form and yellow, haggard face, struck every one with sur- 
prise who saw him then for the first time. 

And what news is this which comes, on one of the last days of 
September, from Fort Jackson, toward which the general was look- 
ing for the arrival of the Tennessee troops ? Another mutiny ! A 
revival of the old dispute about the length of the term of service ! 
Two hundred men, of those who had been called out three 'months 
before to garrison the post, defying all authority, went off rioting 
and tumultuous toward home ! This mutiny, occurring at such an 
important crisis, at a station that lay in the path by which the new 
levies would necessarily march, kindled in Jackson's breast such 
rage and disgust as nothing could appease. He was absent in body 
from the fort, but he soon, by his oi'ders and dispatches, made him- 
self so powerfully present in spirit, that a large number of the de- 
serters, if deserters they were, voluntaiily returned to duty, for 
fear that worse might befall them. Worse did befoll them. Jack- 
son resolved to j^rosecute the* affair to the utmost. A court-martial 
was ordered ; nearly two hundred men were placed under arrest ; 
the tria^ proceeded. 

On the 25th of November, came, at length, an express from Gen- 
eral Coffee, announcing his* arrival on the Mobile River, Avith an 
army of twenty-eight hundred men. The next day Jackson joined 
him and took the command. Including the troops led by General 
Coffee, the garrison of Mobile, a body of mounted Mississippians, 
and a small number of Creek Indians, General Jackson found him- 
self, by the 1st of November, in cominand of an army of four thou- 
sand men ; of whom, perhaps, one thousand were troops of the 
regular service. A large proportion of the volunteers, not less 
than fifteen hundred, were mounted. It is mentioned as a signal 
proof of their zeal in the ser^vnce, that they willingly left their horses 
to pasture on the Mobile River, and served as infantry during the 
subsequent opei'ations ; forage being scarce on the way they were 
next to go. 

General Jackson had resolved, without waiting for any further 
development of the enemy's plans, to "rout the English out of 
Pensacola," as he. was wont to express it. The press and the peo- 



1814.] EXPELS THE ENGLISH FROM I' E N 8 A C O L A . 193 

pie oi the southern states had been chiniorino- for this, with increas- 
ing vehemence and unanimity, ever since they had heard of the 
landing of Colonel Nichols. Jackson was nothing loth. In the 
Avhole range of military enterprise, no expedition could have been 
suggested which he would have undertaken with so keen a zest as 
a march uj)on Pensacola. 

The treasure-chest being empty, Jackson was compelled to pur- 
chase supplies, partly with money of his own, and partly on the 
credit of the government. On the 3d of November, rations for 
eight days having been distributed, ho marched, with three tliou- 
sand men, unincumbered with baggage, toward Pensacola, and 
halted, on the evening of the Cth, within a mile and a half of the 
place. 

Not less prudent than impetuous on great occasions, Jackson im- 
mediately sent forward Major Piere, of the forty-fourth infantry, 
with a flag, to confer with Governor Maurequez. He was ordered 
to give a friendly and candid explanation of the object of General 
Jackson ; which was, not to make war upon a neutral power, nor 
to injure the town, nor needlessly to alarm the subjects of the 
Spanish king; but merely to deprive the enemies of tlie United 
States of a refuge and basis of offensive operations. Major Piere 
was also to demand the immediate surrender of the forts, which 
General Jackson pledged himself to hold only in trust, and to re- 
store uninjured as soon as the present peril of the Gulf ports was 
passed. 

As the major approached Fort St. Michael, bearing the flag of 
truce, he was fired upon ; upon which he retired, and reported the 
fact to the general. Jackson then rode forward and discovered, 
upon inspecting the fort, that it was garrisoned both by British and 
Spanish troops, though only the Spanish ensign now floated from 
the flagstaff. Ordering the troops to bivouac for the night, he re-' 
solved, on the following day, to storm the town. Upon reflecting, 
however, that the firing upon the flag was ])robably the work of the 
English part of the garrison, he made another attempt in the course 
of the evening to reach the governor and bring him to terras. A 
Spanish corporal had been taken on' the march, to whom Jackson 
now intrusted a message to the governor, asking an explanation of 
the insult to the flag. Late in the evening, the corporal returned 
with a verbal comnmnication from the govei'noi-, to the eflect that 
9 



194 LIFE OF ANDRKW JACKSOX. [1814. 

lie was powerless in the hands of the British, who alone had been 
concerned in firing upon the flag of truce, and that he would gladly 
receive any overtures the American general might be pleased to 
make. Jackson, rejoicing in the prospect of a bloodless and speedy 
success, at once dispatched Major Piere again to the town, who was 
soon in the governor's presence, perforn)ing his mission. Jackson 
had hastily Avritten a letter to Maurequez, summing up his demands 
and purposes in his brief, decisive way. " I come," said he, " not 
as the enemy of Spaip ; not to make war, but to ask for peace ; to 
demand security for my country, and that respect to which she is 
entitled and must receive. My force is sufficient, and my determi- 
nation taken, to prevent a future repetition of the injuries she has 
received. I demand, therefore, the possession of the Barrancas, and 
other fortifications, with all your munitions of war. If delivered 
peaceably, the whole will be receipted for and become the subject 
of future arrangement by our respective governments ; while the 
property, laws, and religion of your citizens shall be respected. 
But if taken by an appeal to arms, let the blood of your subjects be 
upon your own head. I will not hold myself responsible for the 
conduct of my enraged soldiers. One hour is given you for delibera- 
tion, when your determination must be had." 

The governor left Major Piere alone, and consulted with his 
officers. He returned after a short absence, and said, apparently 
with reluctance, for the man was. in a sore strait between two, and 
cared only for the preservation of his town, that the terms pro- 
posed by General Jackson could not be acceded to. In the small 
hours of the morning, Major Piere returned to the general, and re- 
ported the governor's ansAver. 

" Turn out the troops," was Jackson's sole commentary upon the 
events of the night. 

An hour before daylight, the men were under arms and ready to 
advance. They had slept upon the main, road leading into the 
town, a road commanded by Fort St. IVIichael, and exposed to the 
full force of a cannonade of seven British men-of-war that lay at 
anchor in the harbor. But let the general himself state the events 
of the morning : 

" On the morning of the 7th," he wrote to Governor Blount a 
few days after, " I marched with the effijctive regulars of the third, 
thirty-ninth, and fourth infantry, part of General CofieeV. brigade, 



1814.] EXPKI, S THE EN.GLISH FROM P E N S A C O L A . 195 

the Mississippi dragoons, and part of the West Tennessee regiment, 
commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Hammonds ( Cq ^qiiqI. Lf ^ >y-r.y - 
haviiig deserted and g^iie home), and part of the Choctaws, led by 
MajorBIueToTTHeTrriH^'-ninth, and Major Kennedy, of Mississippi 
Territory. Being encamped on the west of the to\\'n, I calculated 
they Avould expect the assault from that qunrtei-, and be preparer 
to rake me from the fort, and the British armed vessels, seven in 
number, that lay in the bay. To cherish this idea, I sent out pari 
of the mounted men to show themselves on the. west, while I passed 
in rear of the fort, undiscovered, to the east of the town. When I 
appeared within a mile, I was in frJl vievv'. My pride was never 
more heightened than in viewing the uniform firmness of my troops, 
and with what undaunted courage they advanced, with a strong fort 
ready to assail them on the right, seven armed vessels on the left, 
strong block-houses and batteries of cannon in their front, but they 
still advanced with unshaken firmness, and entered the town, when 
a battery of two cannon was opened upon the centre column, com- 
posed of regulars, with ball and grape, and a shower of musketry 
from the houses and gardens. The battery was immediately 
stormed by CajDtain Laval and his company, and carried, and the 
musketry was soon silenced by the steady and well-directed fii*e of 
the regulars." 

In storming the battery, Captain Laval fell severely wounded, 
but the troops pressed forward into the town, and took a second 
battery before the party ]30sted in it could more than three times 
reload. There was still some firing from behind houses and garden 
walls, when the governor, in utter consternation, ran out into the 
streets bearing a white flag to find the general. He came up first 
with Colonel Williamson and Colonel SmitH, commanding the dis- 
mounted troops, to whom he addressed himself with faltering 
speech, entreating them to spare the town, and promising to con- 
sent to whatever terms the general in command might propose. 
Jackson, who had halted for a moment at the spot where Captain 
Laval had fallen, soon rode up, and hearing what had occurred, pro- 
ceeded to the governor's house, wdiere he received in person the 
assurance that all the forts should be instantly surrendered. 

-HostiUties ceased. Owing to what General Jackson styled 
"Spanish treachery," but probably to the confusion and bewilder- 
ment ih.;t prevailed, and the consequent misunderstanding of or- 



196 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

ders ; or perhaps to the irresolution of the governor and his desire 
to stand excused in the eyes of his English friends, the forts were 
not instantly surrendered. More than once in the course of the day, 
Jackson, exasperated at the delay, was about to open fire upon 
them. But, one by one, the forts were given up, and late in the 
"evening the town was fully his own. 

The town, but not tlie port — which was far more important. 
Fort Barrancas, six miles distant, which commanded the mouth of 
the harbor, was in the hands of the English, and gave complete 
protection to their fleet. Maurequez had given a Avritten order for 
its surrender, addressed to the nominal commandant, and Jackson 
was prepared to march, with the dawn of the next day, to receive 
it, if the order were obeyed ; to carry it by storm, if it were not. 

He was still in hopes that by the prompt seizure of Fort Barran- 
cas he could catch the British fleet as in a trap, and either force it 
to surrender, or do it terrible damage if it should attempt to escape. 
But before the dawn of day a tremendous explosion was heard in 
the direction of the mouth of the harbor. Then. another explosion, 
not so loud; and, a few seconds later, a third. There was little 
doubt what had occurred. Early in the morning a party that was 
sent ^Dut to reconnoiter returned with the intelligence that Fort 
Barrancas was a heap of ruins, and that the British vessels had dis- 
appeared from the bay. Colonel Nichols, Captain Woodbine, the 
garrison, and some hundreds of friendly Indians, had gone off" with 
the ships, leaving their friend Maurequez to settle with the Ameri- 
can general as best he could. 

The 'sudden departure of the British fleet was not less alarming 
than disappointing to the general. Whither had they gone ? The 
most probable supposition was that they were hastening away to 
attack Fort Bowyer and capture Mobile in the absence of the 
troops! To retain Pensacola, in the circumstances, was equally- 
needless and impossible. Sending ofi" a dispatch to Avarn the gar- 
rison of Fort Bowyer of their danger, the general at once prepared 
to evacuate the town, and fly to the defense of Mobile. The next 
morning he was in full march. Not a man had been lost. Less 
than twenty of the troops had been wounded, of whom Captain 
Laval alone was obliged to be left behind to the care of Governor 
Maurequez. The gallant cai)tain received every attei:!' on which his 
situation required. He recovered from his wound, and still lives, 



1814.] FIliST MEASURES AT NEW O K L E A N S . 197 

an honored citizen of Charleston, to tell the story of his own and 
his general's exploits. 

Jacksoai Avaited in the vicinity of Mobile for ten days in expecta- 
tion of the arriyal of Colonel Nichols. That officer did not appear, 
and from the top of Fort Bowyer no approaching fleet Avas descried. 
At length came intelligence that Nichols, Woodbine, and their In- 
dians, had been landed at Appalachicola, where they were fortify- 
ing a position in all haste. Against them Jackson dispatched a 
body of troops and friendly Creeks, nnder Major Blue, who, after 
many remarkable adventures and some severe fighting, drove the 
saA^ages into the interior, and Colonel Nichols from the peninsula. 

General Jackson, now freed from apprehension for the safety of 
Mobile, could direct all his thoughts to the defense of New Or- 
leans. He left Mobile in connnand of General Winchester of the 
regular army. Fort Bowyer was still intrusted to the brave Major 
LaAvrence. General Cofiee was ordered to move by easy marches 
toward NeAV Orleans ; choosing the roads and the course that prom- 
ised the best forage. On the 22d of November, the general, with- 
out any escort but his staff", mounted horse and rode off" in the same 
direction. He had a journey before him of a hundred and seventy 
miles, over the roads of forty-five years ago. Riding a little more 
than seventeen miles a day, he arrived within one short stage of 
New Orleans on the 1st of December. 



CHAPTER XX. 

JACKSON'S FIRST MEASURES AT NEW ORLEANS. 

Neav Orleans was all unprepared for defense against a power- 
ful foe. When the first rumor oT the approaching invasion reached 
the city, EdAvard Livingston, the leading lawyer of the state, caus- 
ed a meeting of the citizens of New Orleans to be convened at 
Tremoulet's coffee-house, to concert measures for defense. The 
meeting occurred on the 15th of September. Upon taking the 
chair, Livingston presented a series of spirited resolutions, breathing 
union and defiance, and supj)orte 1 tlieni by a speech of stirring elo- 



198 LIFE OF ANDREV/ JACKSON. [1814. 

quence. They were 2>assecl by acclamation. A committee of 
public defense, nine in number, with Edw;ird Livingston at its 
head, was appointed, and directed to prepare an address to the 
people of the state. The publication of the address, and the gift 
of a saber to the commandant of Fort Bowyei-, were the only acts 
of the committee of public defense that I find recorded. It may 
%ave induced the formation of new uniformed companies of volun- 
teers ; it may have stimulated the militia to a more vigoroiis drill ; 
it may have induced the governor to convene the legislature ; but 
its main effect was vipon the feelings and the fears of the people. 

On the 5th of October the legislature, in obedience to the sum- 
mons of Governor Claiborne, assembled at New Orleans. Fac- 
tious and incredulous of danger, it did nothing, it attempted noth- 
ing for the defense of the city. Disputes of the most trivial charac- 
ter engrossed the minds of the members. One faction so hated the 
governor that it was enough for him to propose or desire a meas- 
ure for them to vote it down. A committee was named to inquire 
what was needful to be done for defense, but four weeks passed 
away before it reported, and then there was no need of its report- 
ing. Thanks were voted to General Jackson for his recent serv- 
ices, and then the vote w^as reconsidered. It was proposed that the 
members should take an additional oath of fidelity to the United 
States ; and after wasting precious days in debate, the question was 
postponed. No money was apf)ropriated ; no new forces were raised ; 
no law designed to annoy the enemy or preserve the city was passed. 

Their leaders thus divided and inert, what could be expected of 
the people ? It was a time of universal fault-finding. The people 
denounced the legislature. The legislature accused the governor. 
The governor divided the blame between the legislature and the 
people. The Creoles said the Americans were mere adventurers, 
Avho would not fight for the soil they did not love. The Americans 
had faith neither in the efiiciency nor the loyalty of the Creoles. 
Both Americans and Creoles distrusted the floating population of 
Irish and French emigrants. All had some fear of an insurrection of 
the slaves. Eveiy man had his scheme, or his system of measures, 
which, he knew^ would save the city, if it were adopted. But none 
could bring any plan to bear, or get all the opportunity he wanted 
for making it known. In a word, there was no central power or man 
in New^ Orleans in whom the people sufficiently confided, or who pos- 



1814.] FIRST MEASURES AT NEW O R I. E A X S . ] 99 

sessed the requisite lawful authority, to call out the resources of the 
state and direct them to the single object of defeating the expected 
invader. There was talent enough, patriotism enough, zeal enough. 
The .uniting mak alone was wanting ; a man of renown sufficient to 
inspire confidence — a man unknown to the local animosities, around 
whom all parties could rally without conceding any thing to one 
another. 

Jackson has come ! There was magic in the news. Every wit- 
ness, living and dead, testifies to the electric efiect of the general's 
quiet and sudden arrival. There was a truce at once to inde- 
cision, to indolence, to incredulity, to foctious debate, to paltry 
contentions, to wild alarm. He had come, so worn down with dis- 
ease and the fatigue of liis ten days' ride on horseback that he was 
more fit for the hospital than the field. But there was that in his 
manner and aspect which revealed the master. That will of his 
triumphed over the languor and anguish of disease, and every one 
who approached him felt that the man for the hour was there. 

He began his work without the loss of one minute. The una- 
voidable formalities of his reception were no sooner over than he 
mounted his horse again, and rode out to review the uniformed com- 
panies of the city. These companies consisted then of several hun- 
dred men, the elite of the city — merchants, lawyers, the sons of plant- 
ers, clerks and others, who were well equipped, and not a little proud 
of their appearance and disciphne. The general complimented them 
warmly, addressed the principal officers, inquired respecthig the 
numbers, history, and organization of the companies, and left them 
captivated with his frank and.straightforward mode of procedure. 

The new aiddecamp, Mr. Livingston, as he rode from the 
])arade-ground by the general's side, invited him home to dinner. 
The general p.romptly accepted the invitation. It chanced that 
the beautiful and gay Mrs. Livingston, the leader of society then 
at New Orleans, both Creole and American, had a little dinner 
party that day, composed only of ladies, most of whom were young 
and lively Creole belles. Mr. Livingston had sent home woi'd that 
General Jackson had arrived, and that he should ask him to din- 
ner ; a piece of news that threw tlie hospitable lady into consterna- 
tion. " What shall we do with this wild general from Tennessee ?" 
whispered the girls to one another ; for they had all conceived that 
General Jackson, however becomingly he might comport, himself 



200 LIFE OP A N D R E V/ J A C K S O X . [1814. 

*■ 

in an Indian fight, would be most distressingly out of place at a 
fashionable dinner party in the first drawing-room of the most 
polite city in America. He was annomiced. The young ladies 
were seated about the room. Mrs. Livingston sat upon a sofa at 
the head of the apartment, anxiously awaiting the inroad of the 
wild fighter into the regions sacred hitherto to elegance and grace. 
Pie entered. Erect, composed, bronzed with long exposure to the 
sun, his ht\ir just beginning to tui'n gray, clad in his uniform of 
coarse blue cloth and yellow bncTvskin, liis high boots flapping loosely 
about his slender legs, he looked, as he stood near the door of the 
drawing-room, the very picture of a war-worn noble wai-rior and 
COMMANDER. He bowed to the ladies magnificently, who all rose 
at his entrance, as much from amazement as from politeness. Mrs. 
Livingston advanced toward him. With a dignity and grace sel- 
dom equaled, never suri^assed, he went forward to meet her, con- 
ducted her back to her sofa, and sat by her side. The fair Creoles 
were dumb with astonishment. In a few minutes dinner was 
served, and the general continued, during the progress of the 
meal, to converse in an easy, agreeable manner, in the tone of so- 
ciety, of the sole topic of the time, the coming invasion. He as- 
sured the ladies that he felt ])erfectly confident of defending the 
city, and begged that they would give themselves no uneasiness 
with regard to that matter. He rose soon from the table and left 
the house with Mr. Livingston. In one chorus, the young ladies 
exclaimed to their hostess : 

" Is this your backwoodsman ? Why, madam, he is a prince !"* 
Returning to his quartei's, the general summoned the engineers 
resident in the city ; among others. Major Latour, afterward the 
historian of the campaign. The vulnerable points and practicable 
approaches were explained and discussed, and the readiest mode of 
defending each was considered and determined upon. ENcry bayou 
connecting the city with the adjacent bays, and through them with 
the Gulf of Mexico, was ordered to be obstructed by earth and 
sunken logs, and a guard to be posted at its mouth to give warning 
of an enemy's approach. It was determined tliat the neighboring- 
planters should be invited to aid in the various works by gangs of 
slaves. Young gentlemen pressed to head-quarters ofiering to serve 

* To a lady present at the tliimer party the reader is iudebled for this pretty story. 



1814.J FIRST MEASURES AT NEW ORLEANS. 301 

as aids to the general. Edward Livingston, whose services in that 
capacity had been previously oiFered and accepted, was Aviih the gen- 
eral from the first, doing duty as aiddecamp, secretary, translator, 
confidential adviser, and connecting link generally between the 
commander-in-chief and the heterogeneous multitude he had come 
to defend. Never before, in the space of a few hours, did such a 
change come over the spirit of a threatened and imperiled city. 
The work to be done was ascertained and distributed during that af- 
ternoon and evening ; and it could be said that before the city slept, 
every man in it able and willing to assist in prejoaring for the recep- 
tion of the enemy, whether by mind or muscle, had his task assigned 
him, and was eager to enter upon its performance. 

The demeanor of General Jackson on this occasion was such as to 
inspire peculiar confidence. It was that of a man entirely resolved, 
and entirely certain of being able to do what he had come to do. 
He never admitted a doubt of defeating the enemy. For his own 
part, he had but one simple plan to propose, nor would hear of any 
other ; to make all the preparations possible in the time and circum- 
stances ; to strike the enemy wherever, whenever, in what force 
soever, he might appear ; and to drive him back headlong into the 
sea, or bring him prisoner to New Orleans. A spirit of this kind is 
very contagious, particularly among such a susceptible and imagina- 
tive people as the French Creoles — a people not wise in council, not 
gifted with the instinct of legislation, but mighty andtcFrible when 
strongly commanded. The new impulse from the general's quar- 
ters spread throughout the city. Hope and resolution sat on every 
countenance. 

Jackson was up betimes on the following mornnig, and set out in 
a barge, accompanied by aids and engineers, to see with his own 
eyes the lower part of the river. The principal mouth of the Mis- 
sissippi was naturally but erroneously the first object of his solici- 
tude, and he had dispatched Colonel A. P. Hayne from Mobile to 
the Balize, to ascertain whether the old fort there commanded 
tlie mouth of the river, and whether it could be made available for 
preventing the entrance of a hostile fleet. Colonel Hayne rejjorted 
it useless. Some miles higher up the river, however, at a point 
Avhere the navigation was peculiarly diflicult, was Fort Philip, which 
it was supposed, and the event proved, could be rendered an impas- 
sable barrier to the enemy's ships. Tliither Jackson repaired. He 
9* 



202 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

' perceived tlie immense importance of the position, anrl, with the as- 
sistance of Major Latour, drew such plans, and suggested such al- 
terations of the works, as made the fort entirely equal to the defense 
of the river. The stream, as every one knows, is narrow and swift, 
and presents so many obstacles to the ascent of large vessels, that 
an enemy unprovided Avith steamboats, would scarcely have at- 
tempted to reach New Orleans by the river, even if no fort was to 
be passed. Jackson returned to the city after six days' absence, 
with little apprehension of danger from that quarter. 

Desirous of seeing every thing for himself, he proceeded immedi- 
ately upon a rapid tour of inspection along the borders of Lake 
Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne, those broad, shallow bays which 
atibrd to the commerce of New Orleans so convenient a back gate. 
He visited every bayou and fortification, suggesting additional 
works, and stimulating the zeal of the people. He had then com- 
pleted the first survey of his position, and, upon the whole, the re- 
sult was assuring. He thought well of his situation. At least he 
had little fear of a surprise. 

One glance at the lake approaches to the crescent city before w^e 
proceed. Lake Pontchartrain is land-locked, except where a narrow 
strait connects it with Lake Borgne. That strait was defended by 
a fortification which, it was hoped, was capable of beating ofi" the 
enemy. But not by that alone. Lake Borgne, too shallow for 
the admission of large sea-going vessels, would be crossed by the 
enemy, if crossed at all, in small coasting craft or ships' boats. Ac- 
cordingly, on that lake Commodore Patterson had stationed a fleet 
of gun-boats, six in number, carrying in all twenty-three guns, and 
one hundred and eighty-two men, th*e whole under the command of 
Lieutenant Thomas Ap Catesby Jones. Lieutenant Jones was or- 
dered to give prompt notice of the enemy's coming, and if threat- 
ened with attack to retire before the enemy, and lead him on to the 
enarance of the strait that led into Lake Pontchartrain, and there 
anchor, and fight to the last extremity. With the peculiar advan- 
tages of position which the place afforded, it was confidently ex- 
pected that he would be able to defeat any force of small craft that 
the enemy v/ere likely to have at cominand. 

It is evident that Lake Pontchartrain was universally regarded at 
the time as the most natural and obvious means of reaching the 
city, and the gun-boats were chiefly relied upon for its defense. 



1814.] Fill ST MEASURES AT NEW OK LEANS. 203 

Upon them, too, the general mainly relied for the first informa- 
tion of the enemy's arrival. If the gun-boats lailed, the fort 
upon the strait was open to attack. If the gun-boats failed, the 
vigilance of the pickets at the mouths of the bayous was the sole 
safeguard against a surprise. If the gun-boats failed, Lake Borgne 
offered no obstacle to the approach of an enemy, except its shal- 
lowness and its marshy shores. If the gun-boats failed, nothing 
could hinder the enemy from gaining a foothold within a very few 
miles of the city, unless the sentinels should descry their approach 
in time to send ample notice to the general. While the gun-boats 
continued to cruise in the lake, the city had a certain ground of se- 
curity, and could sleep without fear of waking to find British regi- 
ments under its windows. 

But where was the army with which General Jackson was to 
execute his design of hurling into the Gulf of Mexico the invading 
host ? Let us see what forces he had, and what forces he ex- 
pected. 

The troops then in or near New Orleans, and its sole defenders 
as late as the middle of December, were these : two half-filled, new- 
ly-raised regiments of regular troops, numbering about eight hun- 
dred men ; Major Planche's high-spirited battalion of uniformed 
volunteers, about five hundred in number ; two regiments of state 
ir.ilitia, badly equipped, some of them armed with fowling-pieces, 
other's with muskets,. others with rifles,, some without arms, all im- 
perfectly disciplined ; a battalion of free men of color ; the whole 
amounting to about two thousand men. Two vessels-of-war lay at 
anchor in the river, the immortal little schooner Carolina and the 
ship Louisiana, neither of them manned, and no one dreaming of 
what importance they were to prove. Commodore Patterson and 
a few other naval ofiicers were in the city ready when the hour 
siioukl come, and, indeed, already rendering yeoman's service in 
many capacities. General Coffee, with the army of Pensacola, was 
approaching the city by slow marches, contending manfully with 
an inclement season, swollen streams, roads almost impassable, and 
scant forage. He had three hundred men, nearly a tenth of his 
force, sick with fever, dysentery, and exhaustion. But he was com- 
ing. General Carroll, burning with zeal to join his old friend and 
commander, had raised a volunteer force in Tennessee early in the 
smtumn, composed of men of substance and respectability, and, af- 



204 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

ter incredible exertions and many vexatious delays, had got them 
afloat npon the Cumberland. The state had been so stripped of 
arms that Carroll's regiment had not a weapon to every ten men. 
So many men had gone to the wars 'from Tennessee, that Peter 
Cartwright, that valiant son of the Methodist church militant, found 
his cono-reo-ations thin, and his' ingatherings of new members far 
below the average — " So many of our members," he says, " went 
into the war, and deemed it their duty to defend our common coun- 
try under General Jackson." An extraordinary rise of the Cumber- 
land, such as seldom occurs in jSTovember, enabled General Carroll 
to make swift progress into the Ohio, and thence into the Missis- 
sippi, where another piece of good fortune befell him, so impoitant 
that it may almost be said to have saved 'New Orleans. He over- 
took a boat load of muskets, which enabled him to arm his men, 
and drill them daily in their use on the roofs of his fleet of arks. 

Two thousand Kentuckians, under General Thomas and General 
Adair, were also on their way dowrtthe Mississippi ; the worst pro- 
vided body of men, perhaps, that ever went fifteen hundred miles 
from home to help defend a sister state. A few rifles they had 
among them, but no clothing suitable for the season, no blankets, no 
tents, no equipage. Besides food, they were furnished with just one 
article of necessity, namely, a cooking kettle to every eighty men i 
In a flotilla of boats, hastily patched together on the banks of the Ohio, 
they started on their voyage, carrying provisions enough for exactly 
half the distance. They were agreeably disappointed, however, in 
their expectation of living a month on half rations, by overtaking a 
boat loaded with flour ; and, thus supplied, they went on their way, 
ragged but rejoicing. 

Such was General Jackson's situation — such the posture of affairs 
in New Orleans — such the means and prospects of defense — on the 
fourteenth of December : two or three thousand troops in the city ; 
four thousand more Avithin ten or fifteen days' marcli ; six gun-boats 
on Lake Borgne ; two armed vessels on the rix'er ; a small garrison 
of regulars at Fort St. Philip ; another at the fort between the two 
lakes ; the obstruction of the bayous still in progress ; the citizens 
hopeful and resolute, most of them at work, every man where he 
could do most for the cause; the general returning to his quarters 
from his tour of inspection. 



1814.] APPKOACII OF TIIK BRITISH. 205 



CHAPTER XXI. 

APPROACH OF THE BRITISH. 

At the western extremity of the island of Jamaica there are two 
headlands, eight miles apart, which inclose Negril Bay, and render 
it a safe and convenient anchorage. If the good Cieoles of New 
Orleans could have surveyed, from the siimmit of one of those head- 
lands, the scene which Negril Bay presented on- the twenty-fourth of 
November, 1814, it is questionable if General Jackson could have 
given them the slightest confidence in his abihty to defend their 
native city. The spectacle would have given pause even to the gen- 
eral himself. 

It was the rendezvous of the British fleet designed for the cap- 
ture of New Orleans. The day just named was the one appointed 
for its final inspection andreview, previous to its departure for Lake 
Borgne. A fleet of fifty armed vessels, many of them of the first 
magnitude, covered the waters of the bay, and the decks of the 
ships were crowded with red-coated soldiers. The four regiments, 
numbering, with their sappers and artillerymen, three thousand one 
hundred men, who had fought the battle of Bladensburg, burnt the 
public buildings of Washington, and lost their general near Balti- 
more, the summer before, were on board the fleet. Four regiments, 
under General Keane, had.cofne from England direct to reenforce this 
army. Two regiments, composed in part of negro troops, supposed 
to be peculiarly adapted to the climate of New Orleans, had been 
drawn from the West Indies to join the expedition. The fleet could 
furnish, if required,- a body of fifteen hundred marines. Genei'al 
Keane found himself, on his arrival from Plymouth, in command of 
an army of seven thousand four hundred and fifty men, wliich the 
marines of the fleet could swell to eight thousand nine hundred and 
fifty. The munber of sailors could scarcely have been less than ten 
tliousand, of whom a large portion could, and did, assist in the 
operations contemplated. 

Here was a force of nearly twenty thousand men, a fleet of fifty 
ships, carrying a thousand guns, and perfectly appointed in every 
particular, commanded by officers some of whom had grown gray 
in Adctory. And this great armament was about to be directed 



-06 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKS OX. [1814. 

against poor, swamp-environed New Orleans, Avith its ragged, half- 
armed defenders floating down the Mississippi, or marching wearily 
along through the mire and flood of the Gulf shores, commanded 
by a general who had seen fourteen months' service, and caught one 
glimpse of a civilized foe. The greater part of General Keane's 
army were fresh from the fields of the Peninsula, and had been led 
by victorious Wellington into France, to behold and share in that 
final triumph of British arms. To these Peninsular heroes were 
added the ninety-third Highlanders, recently from the Cape of Good 
Hope, one of the "praying regiments" of the British army, as stal- 
wart, as brave, as completely appointed a body of men as had stood 
in arms since Cromwell's Ironsides gave liberty and greatness to 
England. Indeed, there was not a regiment of those Vv'hich had come 
from England to form this army which had not won brilliant dis- 
tinction in strongly-contested fields. The elite of England's army 
and navy were afloat in Negril Bay on that bright day of Novem- 
ber, when the last review took place. 

The scene can be easily imagined — the great fleet of ships spread 
far and wide over the'bay, gay with flags, and alive with throngs of 
red uniforms ; boats rowed with the even stroke of men-of-war's- 
men gliding about among the ships, or going rapidly to and from 
the shoi'e.' On board all was animation and movement. The most 
ir. corrigible ci-oaker in the fleet could not, as he looked out upon 
t];e scene on that bright day of the tropical winter, have felt a doubt 
llat the most easy and complete success awaited the enterprise. 
As every precaution had been taken to conceal the destination of 
the expedition, the officers expected to find the city wholly unpre- 
pared for defense. To occupy, not to conquer Louisiana, was sup- 
posed to be but the preliminary business of the army. From New 
Orleans, as the basis of operations, they expected to ascend the 
^1 ississippi, pushing their conquests to the right and left, and, effect- 
ing a junction with the army of Canada, to overawe and hem in the 
western states. So certain were they of taking New Orleans, that 
several gentlemen, with their families, were on board the fleet who 
liad been appointed to civil offices in the city of New Orleans. 
Among others, a collector for the port, accompanied by his five 
beautiful daughters. Many wives of ofiicers were on board, antici- 
jjating a pleasant winter among the gay Creoles of the Crescent 
City. Music, dancing, dramatic entertainments, and all the diver- 



1 8 1 4.] APPROACH OF THE BRITISH.' 207 

sions of shipboard, wove cpaployed to relieve the monotony of the 
voyage. 

The day after the revievv, the Tonnant, the Kamilies, and two 
of the brigs weighed anchor and put to sea. The next morning the 
rest of the fleet followed. 

Tiiree weeks of pleasant sailing in those tropical seas brought 
the fleet to the entrance of Lake Borgne, the shallowness of which 
forbade its nearer approach. The American gun-boats were de- 
scried, and it was seen at once by the British admiral that offensive' 
operations were impossible, as long as that little fleet commanded 
the lake. A force of fifty large open boats, containing a thousand 
men, under Captain Lockyer, were dispatched from the British 
fleet against the gun-boat flotilla. A dead calm prevented its re- 
treat, and there was no resource but to fight, in the open lake, this 
great armament. A most gallant and resolute defense was made by 
Lieutenant Jones and the men under his command ; but nothing 
could avail against a force so overwhelmingly superior, and the 
little fleet was compelled to surrender. 

This obstacle removed, the British commander prepared to trans- 
port his army across the broad expanse of the lake to the vicinity 
of ISTew Orleans, a distance of eighty miles. An advance party of 
sixteen hundred men found their way unobserved, to the mouth of 
the Bayou Bienvenue, a sluggish creek, about twenty miles below 
the city. This spot had early attracted the attention of General 
Jackson. It was, and is, a lonely, desolate place, resorted to only 
by fishermen and tourists. A little colony of Spanish fisherman 
had built a few rude huts there for their accommodation during the 
fishing season. A picket, consisting of a sergeant, eight white men 
and three mulattoes, had been stationed in the village by General 
Villere, a planter of the neighborhood, to whom Jackson had as- 
signed the duty of guarding the spot. No one anticipating danger 
in that quarter, the picket gradually relaxed their vigilance. Two 
British officers, Capt;iin Spencer of the Carron and Lieutenant 
Peddie of the army, disguised in blue shirts and old tarpaulms, 
landed without exciting suspicion, bought over the Spanish fisher- 
men and their boats, rowed up the bayou, reached the firm land 
along the banks of the great river, and drank of its waters. Hav- 
ing carefully noted all the features of the scene, questioning the 
negroes and others whom they met, they returned to Pine Island, 



208 ~ lifp: of Andrew jacks on. [isil. 

whence tliey guided the advance of the British army to the fatal 
plain. 

It is denied by all American writers tl)^t the picket at the fisher- 
man's village was surprised in the manner stated by English histo- 
rians. Mr. Alexander Walker, who collected his information from 
the men themselves, gives this account of what transpired on the 
night of the landing : 

" Nothing occurred to attract the notice of this picket until about 
midnight on the 22d, when the sentinel on duty in the village called 
his comrade, and informed him that some boats were coining up the 
bayou. It was no false alarm. ' These boats composed the advanced 
party of the British, which had been sent forward from the main 
body of the flotilla, under Captain Spencer, to reconnoiter and se- 
eure the village. 

" The Americans, perceiving the hopelessness of defending them- 
selves against so superior a force, retired for concealment behind 
the cabin, where they remained until the barges had passed them. 
They then ran out and endeavored to reach a boat by which they 
might escape. But they were observed by the British, who ad- 
vanced toward them, seized the boat before it could be dragged 
into the water, and captured four of the picket. Four others were 
afterward taken on land. Of the four remaining, three ran into the 
cane-brake, thence into the praii'ie, where they wandered about all 
day, until, worn down with fatigue and suffering, they returned to 
the village, happy to surrender themselves prisoners. One only es- 
caped, and after three days of terrible hardships and constant perils, 
wandering over trembling prairies, through almost impervious cane- 
brakes, swimming bayous and lagoons, and living on reptiles and 
roots, got safely into the American camp." 

Having effected a landing, the British army led by General Keane 
himself, began a slow and toilsome march toward the city. An 
English officer describes the advance in a highly interesting man- 
ner. " It was not," he says, " without many checks that we were 
able to proceed. Ditches frequently stopped us by running in a 
cross direction, too wide to be leaped, and too deep to be forded; 
consequently, on all such occasions, the troops were obliged to halt, 
till bridges were hastily constructed of such materials as could be 
procured and thrown across. Having advanced in this manner for 
several hours, we at length found ourselves ai)proacliing a more cul- 



1814.] APPROACH OF THE BRITISH. 209 

tivated region. The marsh became gradually less and less continuous, 
being intersected by wider spots of firm gromid ; the reeds gave 
place by degrees to wood, and the wood to inclosed fields. Upoa 
these, however, nothing grew, harvest having long ago ended. They 
accordingly presented but a melancholy appearance, being covered 
with the stubble of sugar-cane, which resembled the reeds w^hich 
we had just quitted in every thing except altitude. Nor as yet was 
any house or cottage to be seen. Though Ave knew, therefore, that 
human habitations could not be fiir ofi", it was impossible to guess 
where they lay, or how numerous they might prove ; and as we 
could not tell whether our guides might not be deceiving us, and. 
whether ambuscades might not be laid for our destruction, as soon 
as we should arrive where troops could conveniently act, our march 
was insensibly conducted with increased caution and regularity. 

" But in a little while some groves of orange-trees presented 
themselves, on passing which two or three farm-houses appeared. 
Tow^ard these our advanced companies immediately hastened, with 
the hope of surprising the inhabitants, and preventing any alarm 
from being raised. Hurrying on at double-quick time, they sur- 
rounded the buildings, succeeded in securing the inmates, and cap- 
turing sevei'al horses ; but, becoming rather careless in watching 
their prisoners, one man contrived to effect his escape. Now, then, 
all hope of eluding observation might be laid aside. The rumor of 
our landing Avould, we knew, spread faster than we could march, 
and it only renuxined to make that rumor as terrible as possible. 

" With this view the column was commanded to widen its files, 
and to present as formidable an appearance as could be assumed- 
Changing our order, in obedience to these directions, Ave marched, 
not in sections of eight or ten abreast, but in pairs, and thus con- 
trived to coA^er with our small division as large a tract of ground as 
if Ave had mustered thrice our present mmibers. Our steps Avere like- 
Avise quickened, that Ave might gain, if possible, some advantageous 
position, Avhere Ave might be able to cope with any force that might 
attack us ; and, thus hastening on, Ave soon arrived at the main 
road, Avhich leads directly to Ncav Orleans. Turning to the right, 
Ave then advanced in the direction of that toAvn for about a mile, 
Avhen, ha\'ing reached a spot Avhere it Avas considei-ed that Ave might 
encamp in comparative safety, our little column halted, the men 
piled their arms, and a regular bivouac Avas formed. 



210 I. I F K OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

"The country where we had now established ourselves was a 
narrow plain of about a mile in width, bounded on one side by the 
Mississippi, and on the other by the marsh from which we had just 
emerged. Toward the open ground, this marsh was covered with 
dwarf-wood,. having the semblance of a forest, rather than a swamp ; 
but on trying the bottom it was found that both characters wei-e 
united, and that it was impossible for a man to make his way among 
the trees, so boggy was the soil upon which they grew. In no other 
quarter, however, was there a single hedge-row, or plantation of any 
kind, excepting a few apple and other fruit-trees in the gardens of 
such houses as were scattered over the plain, the wdiole being laid 
out in large fields for the growth of sugar-cane, a plant which seems 
as abundant in this part of the world as in Jamaica. 

" Looking up toward the town, Avhich we at this time iaced, the 
marsh is upon your right, and the river upon your left. Close to 
the latter runs the main road, following the course of the stream all 
the way to New Orleans. Between tlte road and the water is 
throAvn up a lofty and strong embankment, resembling the dykes 
in Holland, and meant to serve a similar purpose ; by means of which 
the Mississippi is prevented from overflowing its banks, and the en- 
tire flat is preserved from inundation. But the attention of a 
stranger is irresistibly drawn away from every other object to 
contemplate the magnificence of tbis noble river. Pouring along 
at the prodigious rate of four miles an hour, an immense body of 
water is spread out before you, measuring a full mile across, and 
nearly a hundred fathoms in depth. What this mighty stream 
must be near its mouth I can hardly imagine, for we were here up- 
ward of a hundred miles from the ocean." 

The spot upon which, at noon on the twenty-third of December, 
the British advance halted and stacked their arms, was eight miles 
below the city, and, at the moment of the halt. General Jackson 
had received no intimation even of the lauding of an enemy. If 
General Keane had pushed on, he could have taken New Orleans 
without firing a shot. . For, although General Cofl:ee and General 
Carroll had reached the town, the troops under their command were 
so Avidely scattered, in and above the city, that an adequate force 
could not have been assembled in time to i-esist the onset of the 
foe. 

But mark : " one man contrived to effect his escape, ' records the 



1814. J APPKOACH OF THE BRITISH. 211 

British officer whose narrative we have quoted above. How 
many a gallant life hung upon the chances of that one man's cap- 
ture ! How many a wife, toother, sweetheart, over the sea, had 
been spared the desolation of their lives had one of the shower of 
bullets, amid which he fled, have stopped his flight ! How diiFer_ 
ently it might ha\-e fared Avith New Orleans, with General Jackson 
with the invading army, if the news from the Villere plantation had 
been delayed but a few hours ! 

The individual invested with such sudden and extreme importance 
was young Major Gabriel Villere the son of General Yillere, a 
Creole planter of ancient lineage, ixpon whose plantation the British 
were then halting. Major Villere it was who had stationed the 
picket at the mouth of the bayou by which the English troops had 
gained the banks of the Mississippi, and stood now upon the high 
road leading to the pi'ize they were in search of, and within a few 
miles of it. He made all haste to New Orleans, joined on his Avay 
by two friends, and proceeded to head-quarters. Judge Walker 
thus relates their interview wath the general: "During all the ex- 
citing events of this campaign Jackson had barely the strength to 
stand erect without support ; his body was sustained alone by the 
spirit Avithin. Ordinary men Avould have shrunk into feeble imbe- 
ciles or useless invalids under such a pressure. The disease con- 
tracted in the swamps of Alabama still clung to him. Reduced to 
a mere skeleton, unable to digest his food, and unrefreshed by sleep, 
his life seemed to be preserved by some miraculous agency. Thei*e, 
in the parlor of his head-quarters in Royal street, surrounded by 
his faithful and efficient aids, he worked day and night, organizing 
his forces, dispatching orders, receiving i-eports, and making all the 
necessary arrangements for the defense of the city. 

"Jackson was thus engaged at half-past one o'clock, p.m., on the 
23d of December, 1814, when his attention was drawn from certain 
documents he Avas carefully reading, by the sound of horses gallop- 
ing down the streets Avith more rapidity than comported Avith the 
order of a city under martial law. The sounds ceased at the door 
of his head-quarters, and the sentinel on duty announced the arrival 
of three gentlemen who desired to see the general immediately, hav- 
ing important intelligence to communicate. 

" ' Show them in,' ordered the general. 

" The A'isitors pro\ed to be Mr. Dussau de la Croix, Major Gabriel 



212 LIFE OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [1814. 

Villere, and Colonel de la Ronde. They were stained with mud, 
and nearly breathless with the rapidity of their ride. 

" ' What news do yon bring, gentlemen ?' eagerly asked the 
general. 

" ' Important ! highly important !' responded Mr. de la Ci-oix. 
'The British have arrived at Villere' s plantation, nine miles be- 
low the city, and are there encamped. Here is ]\Injor Villere, 
who was captured by them, has escaped, and will now relate his 
story.' 

"The major accordingly detailed, in a clear and perspicuous man- 
ner, the occurrences we have related, employing his mother tongue, 
the French language, which de la Croix translated to the general. 
At the close of Major Villere's narrative, the general drew up his 
figure, bowed with disease and weakness, to its full height, and 
with an eye of fire and an emphatic blow upon the table with his 
clenched fist, exclaimed, 

" ' By the Eternal, they shall not sleep on our soil !' 

" Then courteously inviting his visitors to refresh themselves, and 
" sipping a glass of wine in compliment to them, he turned to his 
secretary and aids and remarked, 

" ' Gentlemen, the British are below, vo; must fight them 

TO-NIGHT !' " 

Jackson proceeded to act as though every thing had occurred 
exactly as he had anticipate(^ General Coffee's brigade was still 
encamped near the spot where they had first halted, four or five 
miles above the -city. Major Planche's battalion was at the Bayou 
St. John, two miles from head-quarters. The state militia, under 
Governor Claiborne, were on the Gentilly road, three miles away ; 
the regulars were in the city, but variously disposed. General 
Carroll, with his Tennesseeans, appear to have been still in the 
boats that brought them .down the liver. Commodore Patterson, 
too, was some distance off. In a manner perfectly quiet and com- 
posed, General Jackson dispatched a messenger to each of the corps 
under his command, ordering them with all haste to break up their 
camp and march to positions assigned them : General Carroll to the 
head of the uj^per branch of the Bienvenu; Governor Claiborne to a 
point farther up the Gentilly road, which road leads from the Chef- 
IMenteur to New Orleans ; the rest of the troops to a plantation just 
below the city. Commodore Patterson was also sent for, and re- 



1814.] APPKOACH OF THE BRITISH. 213 

quested to prepare the Carolina for weighing anchor and dropping 
down the river. 

These orders issued, the general sat down to dinner and ate a lit- 
tle rice, which alone his system could then endure. He then lay- 
down upon a sofa in his office and dozed for a short time. It was 
the last slee'p the general M'as to enjoy for seventy hours or more — 
for five days and nights, one writer positively asserts. Who else 
could have slept at such a time ? Before three o'clock he mounted 
his horse and rode to the lower part of the city, where then stood 
Fort St. Charles, on ground now occupied by the Branch Mint 
building. Be'fore the gates of the fort he took his station, waiting 
to see the troops pass on their way to the vicinity of the enemy's 
position, and to give his final orders to the various commanders. 
Drawn up near him, in imposing array, was one of the two regi- 
ments of regulars, the 44th infantry, Colonel Ross, mustering three 
, hundred and thirty-one muskets. Around the general were gathered 
his six aids. Captain Butler, Captain Reid, Captain Chotard, Ed- 
ward Livingston, Mr. Davezac, Mr. Uuplessis, Tlie other regi- 
ment of regulars, the Vth infimtry, Major Peire, four hundred and 
sixty-five muskets, had already marched down the road, to guard it 
against the enemy's advance. With them were sixty-six mai-ines, 
twenty-two artillerymen and two six-pounders, under Colonel McRea 
and Lieutenant Spott>%, of the reguFar artillery. Captain Beal's 
famous company of New Orleans riflemen, composed of merchants 
and lawyers of the city, were also below, defending the high road. 
A cloud of dust on the levee, and the thunder of horses' feet, soon 
announced to the expectant general the approach of cavalry. Col- 
onel Hinds, of the Mississippi dragoons, emerged from the dust- 
cloud, galloping at the head of his tr.oop, whom he led SAviftly by 
to their designated post. Coifee, with his Tennesseeans, Avas not 
far behind. Halting at the general's side, he conversed with him 
for a few minutes, and then, rejoining his men, gave the word, 
"Forward at a gallop," and the long line of backwoodsmen swept 
rapidly past. Next came into view a parti-colored host on foot, 
at a run, which proved to be Major Planche's fine battalion of uni- 
formed companies. " Ah !" cried Jackson to his aid Davezac, 
"Here come the brave Creoles." They had run all the way from 
the Fort St. John, and cnme breathless into the general's presence. 
In a moment they too had received their orders, and were agaui iu 



214 LIFE OF A > D 11 E W J A IC S O X . [l 8 1 4. 

motion. A battalion of colored freemen, under Major Dacquin, and 
a small body of Choctaw Indians, under Captain Jugeiuit, arrived, 
halted, passed on, and the general had seen his available force go 
by. The number of troops that Avent that afternoon to meet the 
enemy was two thousand one hundred and thirty-one, of whom con- 
siderably more than half had never been in action. 

The commanders of the diiferent corps had all received the same 
simple orders : to advance as far as the Rodriguez Canal, six miles 
below the city, and two miles above the Villere plantation ; there 
to halt, take positions, and wait for orders to close with the enemy. 
The Rodriguez Canal was no more than a v/ide, shallow ditch, 
which extended across the firm ground from the river to the swamp. 

During the bustle attending the departure of the troops the city 
seemed still confident and cheerful. As the men hurried along the 
levee the Avindows were crowded with ladies waving their handker- 
chiefs, and hiding with smiles the anxiety that rent their hearts. 
Husbands, fathers, brothers, nephews, friends, were recognized in 
the moving masses of soldiers. Wives, mothers, sisters, were dis- 
cerned at the familiar windows. The salutations then hurriedly 
given were the last that were ever exchanged between some of those 
panting soldiers and those they loved. 

When, at last, the town was emptied of the armed men, who for 
so many days had thronged its streets, and given a feeling of secu. 
rity to its inhabitants, a strange and horrible stillness fell upon the 
place. No accustomed tramp of passing troops ; no dashing by of 
mounted ofiicers ; no exercising in the public grounds ; no sound of 
bugle, drum, or martial band. It was a town of anxious women 
and old men, who could do nothing but listen for the expected can- 
nonade, and speculate upon the chances of the night. Colonel ISTa- 
pier had not then so eloquently written of the brutal and diabolic 
excesses of the British soldiery at the sack of the Spanish towns. 
But nothing was thought too monstrous for them to attempt if Jack- 
son should be unable to preserve the city from their despoiling 
hands. Many of the ladies of New Orleans, we are told, had pro- 
vided themselves with daggers, which they wore in their belts that 
night instead of the domestic and congenial scissors. 

The last corps of the army had disappeared in the distance, and 
still the general lingered before the gates of Fort St. Charles, look- 
ing, with a slight expression of impatience on his countenance, 



1814.] NIGHT BAT-TLE. 215 

toward that part of tlie river where the sloop-of-war Carolina was 
anchored. He saw her, at length, weigh her anchor, and move 
slowly down the stream. She had been manned within the last few 
days, and well manned, as it proved, though some of her crew only 
learned their duty by doing it. Caj^tain Henly commanded the 
little vessel. Commodore Patterson, however, Avas in no mood to 
stay in New Orleans- on such a night, and so went in her to the 
scene of action. 

The general had no sooner seen the Carolina under Avay, than he 
put spurs to his horse, and galloped down the road by which the 
troops.had gone, followed by all of his staff except Captain Butler. 
Much against his will. Captain Butler was appointed to command 
in the city that- night. It was four o'clock in the afternoon when 
the Carolina left her anchorage, and General Jackson rode away 
from before the gates of Fort St. Charles. The day was Friday. 



CHAPTER XXn. 

NIGHT BATTLE OF DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD. 

Four o'clock in the afternoon. — Most of the American troops 
have reached the Rodriguez Canal ; others are coming up every 
moment. They are all on, or near the high road, which runs along 
the river's bank. The second division of the British army, consist- 
ing of the 21st, the 44th, and the 93d Highlanders, is nearing the 
fisherman's village, at the mouth of the Bayou Bienvenu. The party 
in advance is quiescent and unsuspecting on and about the Viilere 
plantation. General Keane and Colonel Thornton aie pacing the 
piazza of the Viilere mansion, Keane satisfied with his position, 
Thornton distrusting it. 

Half past four. — The first American scouting party, consisthig of 
live mounted riflemen, advance toward the British camp to recon- 
noiter. They advance too fa*-, and retire with the loss of one horse 
killed and two men wounded. The first blood of the laud campaign 
is shed ; Thomas Scott, the name of the first wounded man. Major 
Planche's battalion of Creole volunteers are now beginnino; to arrive. 



216 LIFK OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

Five o'clock. — The general is with his little army, serene, deter- 
mined, confident. He believes he is about to capture or destroy 
those red-coats in his front, and he communicates some ]portion of 
his own assurance to those around him. First, Colonel Hayne, 
inspector-general of the army, shall go forward with Colonel Hind's 
hundred horsemen, to see what he can see of the enemy's position 
and numbers. The hundred horsemen advance ; dash into the 
British pickets ; halt while Colonel Hayne takes a survey of the 
scene before him ; wheel, and gallop back. Colonel Hayne reports 
the enemy's strength at two thousand. But what are these printed 
bills stuck upon the plantation fences? •. 

" LouisiAisriANs ! Remain quiet in your houses. Youk slaves 

SHALL be preserved TO YOU, AND YOUR PROPERTY RESPECTED. We 

make war only against Americans !" 

Signed by General Keane and Admiral Cochrane. A negro was 
overtaken by the returning reconnoiterers, with printed copies of 
this proclamation upon his person, in Spanish and French. 

Twilight deej^ens into darkness. It is the shortest day of the 
year but four. The moon rises hazy and dim, yet bright enough 
for that night's work, if it will only last. The Amei'ican host is very 
silent ; silent, because such is the order ; silent, because they are in 
no mood to chatter. The more provident and lucky of the men eat 
and drink what they have, but most of them neither eat nor hunger. 
As the night drew on the British watch-fires, numerous and brilliant, 
became visible, disclosing completely their position, and lighting the 
Americans the way they were to go. 

Six o clock. — The general-in-chief has completed his scheme, and 
part of it is in course of execution. It was the simple old back- 
woods plan of cornering the enemy ; the best possible for, the time 
and place. Coffee with his own riflemen, with Beale's New Orleans 
sharp-shooters, with Hinds' dragoons, was to leave the river's side, 
march across the plain to the cypress swamp, turn down toward 
the enemy, wheel again, attack them in the flank, and crowd them 
to the river. With General Coifee, as guide and aid, went Colonel 
De la Ronde, the proprietor of one of the plantatiolis embraced in 
the circle of operations. A circuitous march of five miles over moist, 
rough, obstructed ground, lay before Genei-al Cofl^ee, and he was 
already in motion. Jackson, vrith the main fighting strength of the 
army, was to keep closer to the river, and open an attack directly 



1814.] NIGHT BATTLE. 217 

upon the enemy's position ; the artillery and marines upon the higli 
road ; the tAvo regiments of regulars to the left olb the road ; 
Planche's b'atallion, Dacquin's colored freemen, Jugeant's Clioctaws, 
still further to the left, so as to complete the line of attack across 
the plain. The Carolina Avas to anchor opposite the enemy's camp, 
close in shore, and pour broadsides of grape and round shot into 
their midst; From the Carolina was to come the signal of attack. 
Not a shot to be fired, not a sound uttered, till the schooner's guna 
were heard. Then — Coffee, Planche, regulars, marines, Indians, 
negroes, artillery, Jackson, all advance at once, and girdle the foe 
with fire ! 

Half-past six. — The Carolina arrives opposite General Jackson's 
position. Edward Livingston goes on board of her, explains the 
plan of attack, communicates the general's orders to Commodore 
Patterson, and returns to his place at the general's side. " It con- 
tinuing calm," says the commodore in his official dispatch, " got 
out sweeps, and, a few minutes after, having been frequently hailed 
by the enemy's sentinels, anchored, veered out a long scope of cable, 
and sheered close in shore abreast of their camp." The commodore's 
" few minutes" was three-quarters of an hour, at least, according to 
the other accounts. He had more than two miles to go before reach- 
ing the spot where he "veered out the long rea^jh of cable" — itself 
an operation not done in a moment. 

Seven o'clock. — The night has grown darker than was hoped. 
Coffee has made his way across the plain. Behind a ditch separating 
tw^o plantations he is dismounting his men. Cavalry could not be 
employed upon such ground in the dark. Leaving the horses in 
charge of a hundred of his riflemen, he is about to march Avith the 
rest to find and charge the enemy. He has still a long way to go, 
and wants a full hour, at least, to come up with them. General 
Coffee, a man of few Avords, and intent on the business of the hour, 
delivers an oration in something like these Avords : 

"Men, you. have often said you could fight ; noAv is the time to 
prove it. Don't waste powder. Be sure of your nvirk before firing." 

Half-past seven. — The first gun from the Carolina booms over 
the plain, followed in quick succession by seven others — the schoon- 
er's first broadside. It lays low upon the moist delta a hundred 
British soldiers, as some compute or guess. Jackson hears it, and 
yet withholds the expected word of command. Coffee hears it, 
10 



'ilS LIFK OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [1814. 

too soon, but he makes haste to respond. The English division 
then landii% at the fisherman's village hear it, and hurry tumultu- 
ously toward the scene of action, and the boats go madly back to 
Pine Island with the news. New Orleans hears it. A great crowd 
of women, children, old -men, and slaves, assembled in the square 
before the state-house, see the flash and listen to the roar of the 
guns, with eifiotions that can be imagined. 

Other broadsides follow, as fast as men can load. And yet, 
strange to say, the people on board the terrible schooner knew 
nothing all that night of the efiect their. fire produced; knew not 
whether they had contributed any thing or nothing to the final 
issue of the strife. Commodore Patterson simply says : " Com- 
menced a heavy (and as I have since learned, most destructive) fire 
from our starboard battery and small arms, Avhich was returned 
most spiritedly by the enemy with congreve rockets and musketry 
from their whole force, when, after about forty minutes of most in- 
cessant fire, the enemy was silenced. The fire from our battery 
was continued till nine o'clock upon the enemy's flank while en- 
gaged in the field with our army, at which hour ceased firing, sup- 
posing, from the distance of the enemy's fire (for it v>'as too dark 
to see any thing on shore), that they had retreated beyond the 
range of our guns. . Weighed and swept across the river, in hopes 
of a breeze the next morning, to enable me to renew the attack 
upon the enemy, should they be returned to their encampment." 

So much for the Carolina. What she did, we know. But I defy 
any living being to say with positiveness, and in detail, what oc- 
curred on shore. The contradictions betAveen the British and 
American accounts, and between the various American narratives, 
are so flat and irreconcilable, that the narrator Avho cares only for 
the truth pauses bewildered, and knows not what to believa But 
exactness of detail is not imj^ortant in describing this unique bat- 
tle. A more successful night attack, or one that more completely 
gained, not the object proposed, but the objects most necessary to 
be gained, was never made. That fact alone might sufiico. Yet let 
us peer into the thickening darkness, and see what we can discern 
of the credible, the probable, and the certain, borrowing otlier peo- 
ple's eyes when our own fail. 

Jackson oi^ened his attack with curious deliberation. He waited 
patiently for the Carolina's guns. And when the thimdcr of her 



1814.] NIGHT BATTLE. 219 

broadside broke the silence of the night, he still waited. For tea 
minutes,, which seemed thirty, he let the little schooner wixge the 
combat alone, hoping to fix the attention of the enemy exclusively 
upon her. 

Then — FoRWAED ! 

A mistake occurred at the very start. So, at least, avers Major 
Eaton, whose work was written under Jackson's own eye. The 
troops were ordered to march toward the enemy in columns, and 
those nearest the general's person did so. But the larger number, 
instead of moving in columns and starting off to the left, so as to 
fill the gap between Jackson's and* Coffee's divisions, marched in 
line. For a few minutes all went well, and the whole division was 
rapidly nearing the enemy, full of courage and enthusiasm. But 
soon, by the turn of the river, the ground was found to be too 
narrow for the line, which first became compressed, then confused; 
and, finally, Planche's battalion was forced out of the line, an*d com- 
pelled to form in the rear. Jackson saw nothing of this, however ; 
no one saw it except those whom it immediately concerned. Major 
Planche himself scarcely comprehended it — so dark was the night, 
so broken the ground. 

Down the high road, close to the river, with the seventh regi- 
ment, the artillery and the marines, Jackson advanced. A light 
breeze from the river blew over the plain the smoke of the Caroli- 
na's incessant fire, to which was added a fog then beginning to rise 
from the river. Lighted only by the flash of the guns and the 
answering musketiy and rockets, the general pushed on, and had 
approached within less than a mile of the British head-quarters, when 
the company in advance, under Lieutenant McClelland, received a 
brisk fire from a British outpost lying in a ditfch behind a fence 
near the road. Colonel Piatt, quartermaster-general, who was with 
this company, ran to the front, and seeing the red coats, by the 
flash of their own guns, ci'ied out — 

" Come out, and fight like men on open ground." 

Without giving them time to comply with this invitation, he 
poured a volley into their midst, and kept up an active fire for 
four or five minutes. The British picket gave way, and over the 
fence leaped Piatt's company, and occupied the post they had aban- 
doned. This was the first success of the battle, but it was very 
short. In a few minutes, a lai'ge party of British, two hundred, it 



220 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON, [1814. 

is said, came up to regain their lost position, and opened a fire upon 
the victorious company. Its gallant commander, Lieutenant Mc- 
Clelland, fell dead ; Colonel Piatt was wounded ; a sergeant was 
killed ; several of the men were wounded ; and it was going hardly 
with the little band. In the nick of time, however, the two pieces 
of cannon were placed in position on the road, and began a most 
vigorous fire, relieving the advanced conipany, and compelling the 
enemy to keep his distance. A second time the Americans were 
successftil, for a moment. Soon a formidable force of British came 
up the road, and opened a tremendous fire upon the artillerymen 
and marines, evidently designing to take the guns. The marines 
recoiled before the leaden tempest. The horses attached to the 
cannon, wounded by the fire, reared, plunged, became unmanage- 
able, and one of the pieces Avas overturned into the ditch by the side 
of the road. It was a moment of frightful and nearly fatal confu- 
sion. J^ackson dashed into the fire, accompanied by two of his 
aids, and roared out with that startling voice of his — 

" Save the guns, my boys, at every sacrifice." 

The electric presence of the general restored and rallied the ma- 
rines as another company of the seventh came up, and the guns 
were " protected," says Major Eaton, which probably means drawn 
out of danger. All this was the work of a very few minutes. 

The other companies of the seventh, and the whole of the forty- 
fourth, were meanwhile engaged in a miscellaneous, desultory, in- 
describable manner. 

Major Planche was not long in the rear. He marched his battal- 
ion to the left to find an opening for attack. Unfortunately he did 
not march far enough to the left ; but advancing toward the enemy 
before he had gone beyond the forty-fourth, one of his companies 
mistook that regiment for one of the enemy's, and opened fire upon 
it, wounding several men. Planche gallantly atoned for the de- 
plorable error, led his .battalion against the enemy, and gave them 
several effective volleys. Nolte (author of " Fifty Years in Both 
Hemispheres") now catches his first glimpse of the red coats. He 
desires us to understand that he surveyed the scene with the com- 
posure of a veteran. " It was by the flash of the muskets," he says, 
" that we, for the first time, got a sight of the red coats of the 
I nglish, who were posted on a small acclivity in front of us, about 
;' ;i;unshot distant. I noted this circumstance, and at the same mo- 



1814.] NIGHT BATTLE. 221 

ment observed the peculiai' method of firing by the English, who 
still kept up the old custom of three deep ; one row of men 
half kneeling, and two other ranks firing over their shoulders. 
This style of firing, along with the darkness of the evening, ex- 
plamed to me the reason why the enemy's balls, which we heard 
whistling by, mostly flew over our heads, and only seven men were 
wounded, five of them belonging to our own company. After the 
lapse of about twenty minutes, the word was passed to cease firing. 
On the English side. only a few retreating discharges were dropped 
in from time to time. We saw about sixty English captured by 
the Tennessee riflemen, and led ofi" toward the road, and at the 
same time learned that about one-half of our sharp-shooters from the 
city had fallen into the hands of the English." 

Before these simultaneous attacks the English gradually gave 
way ; not at every point, however ; but, upon the whole, the Amer- 
icans gained upon them, and got nearer and nearer the British 
head-quarters. 

General Cofiee, though the signal came a little too early for him, 
was in the thick of the fight sooner than he had expected. Having 
reached the Villere plantation, he wheeled toward the river, and 
marched in a widely* extended line, each man to fight, in the Indian 
fashion, on his own account. He expected to come up with the 
enemy near the river's bank, and would have done so if the Caro- 
lina had begun her fire half an hour later. The enemy, however, 
had then had time to recover from then- confusion, to abandon the 
river, and to form in various positions across the plain. General 
Coflee had not advanced a hundred yards from the swamp before 
he was astonished to find himself in the j^resence of the British 
eighty-fifth. " A war of duels and detachments " ensued, with vary- 
ing fortune ; but the deadly and unerring fire of Coflee's cool 
riflemen, accustomed from of old to night warfare with Indians, 
acquainted Avith all the arts of covert and approach, was too much 
for the British infantry. From orange grove, from ])ehind negro 
huts, the eighty-fifth slowly retired toward the j-iver, until, at length, 
they took post behind an old levee, near the high road. Bayonets 
alone could dislodge them thence, and the Tennesseeans had no 
bayonets. CoflTee, too, retired to cover, and sent to the general for 
orders. 

Captain J. N. Cooke, a British oflicer, who wrote a narrative of 



222 LIFE OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [1814. 

this unexampled campaign, gives a lively picture 9f the battle at the 
time when Coffee was fighting his way across the plain: "Lumps 
and crowds of American militia, who Avere armed with rifles and 
long hunting-knives* for close quarters, now crossed the country; 
and by degrees getting nearer to the head-quarters of the British, 
they were met by some companies of the rifle corps and the eighty- 
fifth light infantry ; and here again such confusion took place as 
seldom occurs in war — the bayonet of the British and the knife of 
the American were in active opposition at close quarters "Quring 
this eventful night, and, as pronounced i)y the Americans, it was 
' rough and tumble.' 

" The darkness was partially dispelled for a few moments now 
and then by the fiashes of fire-arms ; and whenever the outlines of 
men werejdistinguishable, the Americans called out, 'don't fire, we 
are your friends !' Prisoners were taken and retaken. The Amer- 
icans Avere litigating and wrangling, and protesthig that they w.ere 
not taken fairly, and were hugging their fire-arms, and bewailing 
their separation from a favorite rifle that they wished to retain as 
their laAvful property. 

"The British soldiers, likewise, hearing their mother tongue spo- 
ken, were captured by this deception ; when such mistakes being 
detected, the nearest American received a knock-down blow ; and 
in this manner prisoners on both sides, having escaped, again joined 
in the fray, calling out lustily for their respective friends. Here 
was fighting, and straggling flashes of fire darting through the 
gloom, like the tails of so many comets. 

" At this most remarkable night encounter the British were fight- 
ing on two sides of a ragged triangle, their left face pounded by the 
fire from the sloop, and their right face engaged with the American 
land forces. Hallen was still fighting m front at the apex. 

" At one time the Americans pushed round Hallen's right, and 
got possession of the high road behind him, where they took Major 
Mitchell and thirty riflemen going to his assistance. But Hallen 
was inexorable, and at no time had more than one hundred men at 
his disposal ; the riflemen coming up from the rear by twos and 
threes to his assistance, Avhen he had lost nearly half his picket in 
killed and wounded. And behind him was such confusion that an 
English artillery ofiicer declared that the flying illumination encir- 
cling him was so unaccountably strange that had he not pointed his 



J814,] NIGHT BATTLE. 223 

brass cannon to tiie front at tlie beginning of the fight he could not 
have told which was the jyroper front of battle (as the Englisli soldiers 
were often fii-ing one upon the other, as Avell as the Americans), ex- 
cept by looking toward the muzzle of his three-pounder, which he 
dared not fire, from the fear of bringing down friends and foes by 
the same discharge ; seeing, as he did, the darkness suddenly illu- 
minated across the country by the flashing of muskets at every point 
of the compass." i^ 

The incidents attending the capture of Major Mitchell are amus- 
ingly related by the author of " Jackson and New Orleans." " As 
the 93d Highlanders," says this diligent writer, " were expected 
every moment to reach the camp. Major- Mitchell was strongly im- 
pressed with the belief that CoflEee's men, who w^ore hunting-shirts, 
which, in the dark, were not unlike the Highland frock, were the 
men of the 93d, and greatly needing their aid, he eagerly advanced, 
calling out, 'Are those the 93d?' 'Of course,' shouted the Ten- 
nesseeans, who had no particular number. Mitchell thereupon 
pushed boldly forward within a few feet of the men, when Captain 
Donaldson stepped in front, and slapping the astounded Briton on 
the shoulder, called out, ' You are my prisoner,' and requested the 
major's sword. This request was enforced by half a dozen long 
rifles, which covered his body at every assailable point. With infi- 
nite mortification the gallant major surrendered, and with several 
other prisoners was borne oflT by the Tennesseeans. Though at the 
moment of his capture, and subsequently, Major Mitchell was treat- 
ed with the kindness and generosity due to a gallant foe, he never 
recovered his good humor, and embraced every opportunity of ex- 
hibiting his spleen and disgust. The oblique movement of Cofiee's 
brigade to the right produced some disasters which were sorely 4a- 
mented by the Americans." 

Such Avere the scenes enacted on the plains of the Delta in the 
evening of December the 23d, 1814, for about the space of an hour 
and a half 

Nine o'clock. — The Carolina, as we have seen, ceases her deadly 
fire. The second division of English troops have arrived, and min- 
gled in the battle, more than repairing the casualties of the night in 
the English army. The fog, rising from the river, has spread densely 
over the field, first enveloping Jackson's division, which was near- 
est the river, then rolling ovc the entire plain. The general has 



224 L I F K O F A X D p. E \V J A C K S O J*f . [1814. 

heard nothing of General Coffee since he partedVith Lira at six 
o'clock. He concludes now to suspend all operations till the dawn 
of day. Coffee's messenger finds the general, at length, and dej)arts 
with an order for General Coffee to withdraw his men from the 
field, and rejoin the right wing with all dispatch. 

Ten o'clock. — The American troops have retired, and are spread 
over th^ j^lain a mile or more from the scene of conflict. The 
wounded, all of them that c^ bo found, are brought in and con- 
veyed toward the city. The hihabitaiits of New Orleans have 
learned enough of the issue of the fight to allay their apprehensions 
of immediate danger; but women stiU sit at home or flit about the 
streets in an agony of susp'ense, to learn something of the fate of 
fathers, husbands, and brothers. The arrival of British prisoners is 
noised about, cheering all but tliose Avho have staked more than life 
in the contest. General Jackson has, as yet, no thought but to re- 
new the battle the moment it is light enough to find the foe ; and, 
to that end, sends a dispatch to General Carroll, who is guarding 
the city from attack from above, ordering him, if no sign of an ene- 
my has appeared in that quarter, to join the main body instantly 
with all his force. General Carroll will lose no time in obeying a 
command so welcome. 

The battle over, we can reckon up its cost, while the troops re- 
assembled, are eagerly narrating their several adventtires, or per- 
formmg sad duties to wounded comrades and dead. 

The British have lost to-night, according to General Keane's offi- 
cial report, forty-six killed, one hundred and sixty-seven wounded, 
and sixty-four prisoners and deserters. Lieutenant De Lacy Evans, 
afterward member of parliament, and, more recently, one of the 
hert>es of the Crimea, was among the wounded. The American 
logs was : killed, twenty-four ; wounded, one hundred and fifteen ; 
missing, seventy-four. 

One o'clock in the morning. — Silence reigns in both camps. There 
have been occasional alarms during the night, and some firing ; 
enough to keep both armies on the alert. Noise of an approach- 
ing host from the city is heard soon after one, which proves to be 
General Carroll and his men, who have marched down with Ten- 
nesseean swiftness. But Jackson has changed his mind. British 
deserters have brought information of the arrival of reenforcements 
to General Keane's army, and of still further forces to arrive on 



1814.] NIGHT BATTLE. 226 

the morrow. Is it prudent to risk the campaign and the city upon an 
open fight between twenty-five hundred raw troops without bayo- 
nets, and six or seven thousand perfectly discipUned British soldiers, 
who have bayonets and know how to use them ? That question, 
argued around the general's bivouac at midnight, admitted of but 
one answer. It Avas resolved, then, in the midnight counsel on the 
fog-covei'ed field, to retire at daybreak to the old position behind 
the Rodriguez Canal, there to throw up whatever line of defense 
might be possible, and await the enemy's attack. The two men- 
of-war shall anchor ofl" the levee and cover the high road with their 
guns. If necessary, the levee shall be pierced, and the plain be- 
tween the two armies flooded. Hind's dragoons, who could not 
join in the night battle, shall hold the position between the two 
armies, and conceal the contemplated movements. 

Slowly, very slowly, the hours of dai'kness Avore away. " The 
night," says Nolte, " was very cold. "Wearied by our long march, 
and standing in the open field, we all wanted to make a fire, ^and at 
length, at the special request of our major, permission to kindle one 
was obtained. Within twenty minutes we saw innumerable watch- 
fires blazing up in a line extending," like a crescent, from the shores 
of the Mississippi to the woods, and stretching far away behind the 
plantations of Villere, Lacoste, and others, occupied by the Eng- 
lish, on whose minds, as well as on our own, the impression must have 
been produced, that Jackson had many more troops under his com- 
mand and near the spot than any one had supposed." 

The fires were not hghted too soon ; for, in the fight, many of 
Cofit'c's men had thrown away their long coats, and stood shiver- 
ing thi'ough the night in their shirt-sleeves. Indeed, both brigades 
of Tennesseeans were in sorry plight with regard to clothes when 
they arrived, and few came out of the battle with a whole garment. 
There will be biisy sewing-circles to-morrow in New Orleans, sea- 
soned, not with scandal, but with tales of the brave deeds done by 
the ragged heroes of the night battle. And all over the field shall 
wander, after dawn, cold Tennesseeans, hunting up lost. coats, lost 
tomahawks and knives, lost horses, and, alas ! lost comrades, cold 
forever, for whom there will be proud mourning in the log-houses 
of Tennessee. "These }>oor fellows," wrote a British oflicer 
who, with General Keane, Avalked over part of t]ie field, " present- 
ed a strange appearance ; their hair, eyebrows, and lashes were 
10* 



226 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

thickly covered with hoar-frost, or rime, their bloodless cheeks 
vying with its whiteness. Few were dressed in military uniforms, 
and most of them bore the appearance of farmers or husbandmen. 
Peace to their ashes ! they had nobly died in defending their coun- 
try." 



CHAPTER XXin. 

^ JACKSON FORTIFIES. 

The Roderiguez Canal was an old mill-race, partly filled up and 
grown over with grass. In the early days of the colony the plant- 
ers buijt their mills on the levee, and obtained water power by cut- 
ting canals from the river to the swamp, through which poured an 
abundant flood during the periodical swellings of the river. The 
Roderiguez Canal crossed the plain where the plain was narrowest ; 
and this circumstance it was that rendered the position chosen by 
General Jackson for his line of intrenchments the very best which 
the vicinity aiforded. 

Daylight dawned. The fog slowly lifted. Never was the blessed 
light of day welcomer to the longing sons of men. The earliest 
light found the main body of Jackson's army in their former posi- 
tion behind the canal. Every thing that New Orleans could fur- 
nish in the shape of spade, shovel, pickaxe, crowbar, wheelbarrow, 
cart, had been sent for, hours before, and the first supplies began 
to arrive almost as soon as the men were ready to use them. Now 
let there be such digging, shoveling, and heaping uj? of earth, as the 
Delta of the Mississippi, or any other delta under heaven, has never 
seen since Adam delved ! 

" Here," said Jackson, " Ave will plant our stakes, and not abandon 
them until we drive these red coat rascals into the river or the 
swamp." 

The canal was deepened and the earth thrown up on the side 
nearest the city. The fences were torn away, and the rails driven 
in to keep the light soil from falling back again into the canal. Soft 



1814.] JACKSON FORTIFIES. 227 

jDalms, which had never before handled anything harsher than a pen, 
a fishing-rod, or a lady's waist, blistered and bled, and felt it not. 
Each company had its own Ihie of embankment to throw np, which 
it called its castle, and strained every muscle in fierce but friendly 
rivalry to make it overtop the castles of the rest. 

The nature of the soil rendered the task one of peculiar difliculty. 
Dig down three feet anywhere in that singular plain and you come 
to water. Earth soon became the scarcest of commodities near the 
lines, and had to be brought from far, after the first hours. An 
idea occurs to an ingenious French intellect. Cotton hales ! The 
town is full of cotton ; and lo ! here, close to the lines, is a vessel 
laden with cotton, waiting for a chance to get to sea. The idea, 
plausible as it was, did not stand the test of service. The first can- 
nonade knocked the cotton bales about in a manner that made the 
general more eager to get rid of them than he had been to use 
them. Some of the bales, too, caught fire, and made a most in- 
tolerable and persistent smoke, so that, days before the final con- 
flict, every pound of cotton was removed from the lines. A similar 
error was made by the enemy, who, supposing that sugar would 
oflier resistance to cannon balls equal to sand, employed hogsheads 
of sugar in the formation of their batteries. The first ball that 
knocked a hogshead to pieces, and kept on its destructive way un- 
checked, convinced them that sugar and sand, though often found 
together, have little in common. 

During the 24th the entire line of defense, a mile long, was begun, 
and raised, in some places, to a hight of four or five feet. The 
work was not interrupted by the enemy for a moment, nor was 
there any alarm or sign of their approach. Before night two small 
pieces of cannon were placed in position on the high road. 

In the course of the morning Major Latour was ordered to cut 
the levee at a point one hundred yards below the lines. The water 
rushed thi'ough the opening, and flooded the road to the depth of 
three feet. A day or two after an engineer was sent belov,' the 
British camp to let in the Avater behind them, so as to render their 
position an island. If the river had been as high as it occasionally 
is in December, and always is in the spring, the campaign would 
have had a ludicrous and bloodless termination, for nearly the 
whole plain could have been laid under water, and the enemy would 
have found no sufticient resting-place for the soles of so' many feet. 



228 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSOX. [1814 

It chanced, however, that the rise of the river at this time was onh 
temporary. The water soon fell to the level of the road ; and th{ 
piercing of the levee really aided the English, by filling up and ren 
de«ipg more navigable the creeks in their rear, by. which their sup 
plies were brought up. For a day or two only the flooding of the 
road was serviceable in giving an appearance of perfect security to 
the lines near the river. 

Early in the morning the Carolina, fi-om her anchorage opposite 
the British camp, and the Louisiana, from an advantageous position 
a mile above, played upon the enemy whenever a red coat showed 
itself within range. General Keane found himself, to his boundless 
astonishment, besieged ! Not a column could be formed upon the 
plain, which was torn up in every direction by the Carolina's accu- 
rate and incessant fire. Never was an army more strangely, more 
unexpectedly, more completely paralyzed. They could do abso- 
lutely nothing but cower under embankments, skulk behind huts, 
lie low in dry ditches, or else retire beyond the reach of that ter- 
rible fire which they had no means of silencing or answering. 

The omnipresent activity of General Jackson on this important 
day no words can adequately describe. We catch brief glimpses 
of him, in the various narratives, riding along the rising line of em- 
bankment, cheering on the laboring troops, cheered l7y them as he 
passed, suggesting expedients here, applauding those of others 
there, passing quick decisive judgments on the plans of the engi- 
neers, sending oiF aids, hearing reports, spying the enemy through 
his glass, keeping every man at his utmost stretch of exertion. It 
was not the enemy in his front that gave him the most anxious con- 
cern; for he felt that, for the moment, he was master of the situ- 
ation there. But he had been surprised once, in spite of all his 
vigilance. jVIight he not be surprised again ? There were so many 
avenues of approach to the city. Might not the seeming inactivity 
of the enemy be a feint, designed to cover a landing elsewhere? 
A party was sent, in the course of the day, to Barrataria, under the 
command of Major Keynolds, and the guidance of Jean Lafitte, to 
resist any attempts in that region ; at least, to give timely notice if 
the enemy should enter the bay. Messengers were dispatched to 
all other vulnerable points, exhorting* and commanding the pickets 
and garrisons to sleepless vigilance. 

And on this- busy Saturday, the day before the best day of the 



1814] JACKSON FORTIFIES. 229 

Christian year, whil e such events as these were tran spiring on the Delta 
of the Mississippi, what ti different scene was enacting at Ghent, three 
thousand miles away ! In Senator Seward's Life of John Quincy 
Adams we read : " Mr. Todd, one of the secretaries of the Ameri- 
can commissioners, and son-in-law of President Madison, had invited 
several gentlemen, Americans and others, to take refreshments with 
him on the 24th of December. At noon, after having spent some 
time in pleasant conversation, the refreshments entered, and Mr. 
Todd said: '•It is tioelve o'clock. Well, gentlemen, Z announce to 
you that peace has been made and sigtied beticeen A^nerica and Eng- 
land.'' In a few moments, Messrs. Gallatin, Clay, Carroll, and 
Hughes entered, and confirmed the annunciation. This intelligence 
was. received with a bufst of joy by all present. The news soon 
spread through the town, and gave general satisfaction to the citi- 
zens. At Paris the intelligence was hailed with acclamations. In 
the evening the theatres resounded with cries of ' God save the 
Americans.' " 

Had there then been an Atlantic telegraphic cable! ! 

The light of Christmas morning found the English army disheart- 
ened, almost to the degree of despaii'. " I shall eat my Christmas 
dinner in New Orleans," said Admiral Cochrane on the day of the 
landing. The remark was reported by a prisoner to General Jack- 
son, who said, " Perhaps so ; but I shall have the honor of presiding 
at that dinner." As usual, when affairs go wrong, the general in 
command was the scapegoat. By every camp-fire, in every hut, at 
every outpost the conduct of General Keaue was severely criticized. 

Though discouragem-ent was the habitual feeling of the British 
troops from the night of the twenty-third until the end, yet an event 
on this Christmas morning occurred which, for the time, dispelled 
the prevailing gloom. This was the sudden arrival in camp, to take 
the c v'.imand of the troojjs, of Major-General Sir Edward Pakenham, 
and with him, as second in command, Major-General Samuel Gibbs ; 
besides several staff officers of experience and distinction. In a 
moment hope revived and animation reappeared. General Paken- 
ham, the brother-in-law of the Duke of "Wellington, a favorite of the 
duke and of the army, was of North of Ireland extraction, like tlie an- 
tagonist with whom he had come to contend. Few soldiers of the 
Peninsular war had won such high and rapid distinction as he. At 
Salamanca, at Badijoz, wherever, in fact, the figliting had been 



230 LIFE OF A.NDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

fiercest, thei'e had this brave soldier done a man's part for his coun- 
try, often foremost among the foremost. *He was now but thirty- 
eight years of age, and the record of his briglit career was written 
all over his body in honorable scars. Conspicuous equally for his 
humanity and for his courage, he had ever lifted his voice and his 
arm against those monstrous scenes of pillage and outrage which 
disgraced the British name at the capture of the strongholds of 
Spain ; hanging a man upon one occasion upon the spot, without 
trial or law, and thus, according to Napier, " nipping the wicked- 
ness in the bud." 

General Pakenham inherited General Keane's erroneous infor- 
mation respecting Jackson's strength. Keeping this fact in view, 
his first measure seems judicious enough.^ Let us quote a British 
officer's account of Christmas day in the British camp : — " Hoping 
every thmg from a change of leaders, the troops greeted their new 
leadei' with a hearty cheer ; whilst the confidence which past events 
had tended in some degree to dispel, returned once more to the 
bosoms of all. It was Christmas day, and a number o£ officers, 
clubbing their little stock of provisions, resolved to dine together 
in memory .of former times. But at so melancholy a Christmas din- 
ner I do not recollect at any time to have been present. We dined 
in a barn ; of plates, knives and forks, there was a dismal scarcity, 
nor could our fare boast of much either in intrinsic good quality or in 
the way of cooking. These, however, were mere matters of merri- 
ment ; it was the want of many Avell-known and beloved faces that 
gave us pain ; nor were any other subjects discussed besides the 
amiable qualities of those who no longer formed part of our mess, 
and never would again form part of it. A few guesses as to the 
probable success of future attempts alone relieved this topic, and 
now and then a shot from the schooner drew our attention to our- 
selves ; for though too far removed from the river to be in much 
danger, Ave were still within cannon-shot of our enemy. Nor was 
she inactive in her attempts to molest. Elevating her guns to a 
great degree, she contrived occasionally to strike the wall of the 
building within which we sat ; but the force of the ball was too 
far spent to penetrate, and could therefore produce no serious 

alarm. 

" Whilst we were thus sitting at table, a loud shriek was heard 
after one of these explosions, and on runniug out we found that a 



1814.] JACKSON FOKTIFIES. 231 

• 

shot had taken effect in the body of an mifortunate soldier. I men- 
tion this incident, because I never beheld in any human being so 
great a tenacity of life. Though fairly cut in two at the lower part 
of the belly, the poor wretch lived for nearly an hour, gasping for 
breath, and giving signs even of i^ain. 

" But to return to my narrative : as soon as he reached the camp, 
Sir Edward proceeded to examine, with a soldier's eye, every point 
and place within view. Of the Amei'ican army nothing whatever 
could be perceived except a corps of observation, composed of five 
or six hundred mounted riflemen, which hovered along our front and 
watched our motions. The town itself was completely hid, nor was 
it possible to see beyond the distanceof a veryfew miles, either in front 
or rear, so flat and unbroken was the face of the country. Under 
htese circumstances, little insighlfinto the state of afi*airs could be 
obtained by reconnoitering. The only thing, indeed, which we could 
learn from it was, that while the vessels kept their present station 
upon the river no advance could be made ; and, as he felt -that every 
moment's delay was injurious- to us, and favorable to the enemy, he 
resolved to remove these incumbrances, and to push forward as 
soon as possible." 

To blow the Carolina out of the water, then, is General Pak- 
enham's first resolve. Till that is done he thinks no movement of 
the troops is j^ossible. With incredible toil, nine field pieces, two 
howitzers, one mortar, a furnace for heating balls, and a supply of 
the requisite implements and ammunition, were brought from the 
fleet and dragged to the British camp. By the evening of the 
26th they have all arrived, and are ready to be placed in position 
on the levee as soon as darkness covers the scene of operations and 
silences the Carolina's exasperating fire. The little schooner lay 
near the opposite shore of the river, just where she had dropped 
her anchor after swinging away from the scene of the night action 
of the 23d. There she had remained immovable ever since, firing 
at the enemy as often as he showed himself. A succession of 
northerly winds and dead calms rendered it impossible for Cap- 
tain Henly to execute his purpose of getting nearer the British po- 
sition, nor could he move the vessel higher up against the strong 
current of the swollen Mississippi. In a word, the Carolina was a 
fixture, a floating battery. "What is very remarkable, considering 
the great annoyance caused by the fire of this schooner, she had but 



232 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

one gun, a long twelve, as Captain Henly reports, which could 
throw a ball across the river ! 

The head-quarters of General Jackson were now at a mansion- 
house about two hundred yards behind the American lines. From 
an upper window of this house, above the trees in which it was em- 
bosomed, the general surveyed the scene below ; the long line of 
men at work upon the intrenchments ; Hinds' dragoons maneuvering 
and galloping to and fro between the two armies ; the Carolina and' 
Louisiana in the stream vomiting their iron thunder upon the foe. 
With the aid of an old telescoi>e, lent him by an aged Frenchman, 
which appeal's to. have been almost the only instrument of the kind 
■procurable in'the place, he scanned the British position anxiously 
and often. He was surprised, puzzled, and perhaps a little alarmed 
at the enemy's prolonged inactivity. What could they be doing 
down there behind the plantation houses ? Why should they, un- 
less they had some deep scientific scheme on foot, quite beyond the 
penetration of a backwoodsman, allow him to go on strengthening 
his position, day after day, without the slightest attempt at molesta- 
tion? 

It was not in the nature of Andrew Jackson to wait long for an 
enemy to attack. Too prudent to trust his raw troops in an open 
fight with an army twice his number, it occurred to him, on the af- 
ternoon of the 26th, that there might be another and a safer way to 
dislodge them from their covert ; at least, to disturb them in the 
development of whatever scheme they might be so quietly concoct- 
ing. He sent for Commodore Patterson. Upon the arrival of the 
commodore at head-quarters, a short conference took place between 
the naval and the military hero. Then the gallant commodore hur- 
ries oflf to New Orleans. His object is to ascertain whether a few 
of the merchant vessels lying idle at the levee cannot be instantly 
manned, and armed each with two thirty-two pounders from the 
navy-yard ; and if they can, to set them floating down toward the 
British position ; where, dropping anchor, they shall join in the can- 
nonade, and sweep the plain from side to side with huge, resistless 
balls. No plantation houses, no negro huts, no shallow ditches, no 
attainable distance will then avail the invading army. 

Commodore Patterson could not succeed in .his errand in time. 
But he bore in mind the general's hint, and, in due time, acted 
upon it in another way wit'i most telling effect. 



1814.] JACKSON FORTIFIES. 233 

At dawn of (lay, on the 27tli, the American troops were startled 
by the report of a larger piece of ordnance than they had yet heard 
from the enemy's camp. The second. shot from the great guns 
placed by the British on the levee during the night, white hot, 
struck the Carolina, pierced her side, and lodged in the main hold 
under a mass of cables, where it could neither be reached nor 
quenched. And this was but the prelude to a furious cannonade, 
which sent the bombs and hot balls hissing and roaring about her, 
penetrating her cabin, knocking away her bulwarks, bringing down 
rigging and spars about the ears of the astonished crew. Captain 
Henly replied as best he could with his single long-twelve ; while 
both armies lined and thronged the levee, watching the unequal 
combat with breathless interest. < 

No : not breathless. As often as the schooner was hit, cheers 
from the British troops rent the morning air ; and whenever a well- 
aimed shot from the Carolina drove the British gunners for a mo- 
ment under the shelter of the levee, shouts from the Americans ap- 
plauded the devoted crew. General Jackson was at his high win- 
dow spying the combat. Perceiving from the first how it must 
end, he sent an emphatic order to Lieutenant Thompson, of the 
Louisiana, to get that vessel out of range if it was in the power of 
man to do it. General Pakenham stood on the levee near his guns 
cheering on the artillerymen. 

Half-an-hour of this Avork was enough for the Carolina. " Find- 
ing," says Captain Henly, in his report to Commodore Patterson, 
with the blunt pathos gf a sailor mourning for the loss of his vessel, 
" that hot shot were passing through her cabin and filling-room, 
which contained a considerable quantity of powder, her bulwarks 
all knocked down by the enemy's shot, the vessel in a sinking con- 
dition, and the fire increasing, and expecting every moment that she 
would blow up, at a little after sunrise I reluctantly gave orders for 
the crew to abandon her, which was effected Avith the loss of one 
ma#killed and six wounded. A short time after I had succeeded 
in getting the crcAV on shore, I had the extreme mortification of see- 
ing her bloAV un. It affords me great pleasure to acknowledge the 
able assistance I received from Lieutenants Norris and CraAvley and 
sailing-master Haller, and to say that my oificcrs and crew behaved 
on this occasion, as Avell as on the 23d, \\'hen under your own eye, 
in a most gallant manner. Almost every article of clothing belong- 



234 LIFK OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

mg to the officers aiul crcNV, from the rapid progress of the fire, Avas 
iavolved in the destruction of the vessel." 

The ex^jlosion was terrific* It shook the earth for miles around ; 
it threw a shower of burning fragments over the Louisiana, a mile 
distant ; it sent a shock of terror to thousands of listening women 
in New Orleans ; it gave a momentary discoiiragement to the Amer-. 
lean troops. The English army, whom the schooner's fire had tor- 
mented for four days, raised a shout of exultation, as though the 
silencing of that single gun had removed the only obstacle to their 
victorious advance. 

But the Louisiana was still above water, and apparently as im- 
movable as the Carolina had been. Upon her the British guns 
♦were immediately turned. To avail himself of a light breeze, or 
intimation of a breeze, from the east, Lieutenant Thompson has 
spread all his sails. But against that steady, strong, deep current 
it availed not even to slacken the ship's cable. Red hot balls fell 
hissing into the water about her, and a shell burst upon her deck, 
wounding six of the crew. " Man the boats," thundered the com- 
mander. A hundred men were soon tugging at the oars, strug- 
gling, as for more than life, to tow the ship up the stream. She 
moved ; the cable slackened and was let go ; still she moved slowly, 
steadily, and, ere long, was safe out of the deadly tempest, at 
anchor under the western shore, opposite the American lines. 

Then it was our turn to lift the exulting shout, and cheer upon 
cheer saluted the rescued ship. The English soldiers heard the 
cheers as they were " falling in," three miles below. Every trace 
of discouragement was gone from both armies. The British now 
formed upon the open plain, without let or hinderance. The Amer- 
icans could coolly estimate the success of the cannonade at its 
proper, value. They had lost just one available gun, and saved a 
ship which, at one broadside, could throw eight twelve-jiound balls 
a mile and a half That was the net result of a cannonade for which 
the British army had toiled and waited a day and two nights. • 

If the English had directed their fire first upon the Louisiana, 
they could have destroyed both vessels. How astonishing that 
any man, standing where General Pakenham stood thift morning, 
could have failed to perceive a fact so obvious? The Louisiana 
had only to go a mile up the river to be out of danger. Half a 
mile made her comparatively safe. The Carolina was fully two 



1814.] JACKSON FORT IF IKS. 285 

miles below the point of safety. The half hour expended upon the 
schooner would have blown up the ship, and then, at their leisure 
they could have i>layed upon the smaller vessel. And even if Cap- 
tain Hcnly had slipped his cable and. dro2:>ped down the stream past 
the British camp, the vessel would have been as effectually removed 
as she was when her burning fragments floated by. 

The twenty-seventh was a busy day in the American lines. They 
were still far fi-om complete, and every man now felt that their 
strength would soon be put to the test. In the course of the day 
a twelve-jjound howitzer was placed in position, so as to command 
the high road. In the evening a twenty-four was established fur- 
ther to the left, and early next morning another twenty-four. The 
crew of the Carolina hurried round to the lines to assist in serving 
these guns ; and on the morrow the Barratarians were coming 
down from Fort St. Johns to lend a powerful hand. The two reg- 
unents of Louisiana militia wei'e added to the force behind the 
lines. All day long the shovel and the spade are vigorously plied ; 
the embankment rises ; the canal deepens. The lines nearest the 
river are strongest and best protected, and, besides, are con- 
cealed from the- view of an approaching foe by the buildings of the 
Chalmette plantation, a quarter of a mile below them. These build- 
ings, which have served hitherto as the quarters of Plinds' dragoons, 
will protect the enemy more than they protect us, thinks the gen- 
eral, and orders them to be fired when the enemy advances. It 
was a mistake, and the order, luckily, was only executed in part. 
Far to the left, near the cypress swamp, the lines are weakest, 
though there Coffee's Tennesseans had worked as only Coffee's 
Tennesseans could work, to make them strong. 

The morning of the 28th of December was one of those perfect 
mornings of the southern winter, to enjoy which it is almost worth 
while to live twenty degrees too near the tropic of Cancer. Balmy, 
yet bracing ; brilliant, but soft ; inviting to action, though render- 
ing mere existence bUss. The golden mist that heralded the sun 
soon wreathed itself away and vanished into space, except that part 
of it which hung in glittering diamonds upon the herbage and the 
evergreens that encircled the stubbled-covered plain. The monarch 
of the day shone out with that brightness that neither dazzles nor 
consumes, but is beautiful and cheering merely. Gone and forgot- 
ten were jiow the lowering clouds, the penetrating fogs, the dis- 



236 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

heartening rains, that for so many days and dreary fearful nights 
had hung over the dark Delta. The river was flowing gold. " The 
trees," we are told, " were melcji^ious with the noisy strains of the 
rice-bird, and the bold falsetto of that pride of southern ornithol- 
ogy, the mocking-bird, who, here alone, continues the whole year 
round his unceasing notes of exultant mockery and vocal defiance,'' 

Away, noisy rice-bird, and defiant mocking-bird. Music more 
noisy and more defiant than yours salutes the rising sun ; the roll- 
ing drum and ringing bugle, namely, that call twelve thousand hos- 
tile men to arms. -This glorious morning General Pakenham is re- 
solved to have, at least, one good look at the Avary and active foe 
that for five days has given pause to the invading army, and has 
not yet been so much as seen by them. With his whole force" he 
will march boldly up to the lines, and, if fortune favors, and the 
prospect pleases, he W'ill leap over them into New Orleans and 
the House of Lords. A grand reconnoissance is the order of the 
day. 

The American general has not used his telescope in vain ; he is 
perfectly aware that an early advance is intended. Five pieces of 
cannon he has in position. The crew of the Carolina, under Lieu- 
tenant Crawley and Lieutenant Norris, Captain Humphrey and his 
artillerymen, are ready to serve them. Before the sun was an hour 
on his diurnal way, Jackson's anxious glances toVard the city had 
been changed into expressions of satisfaction and confidence by the 
spectacle of several straggling bands of red-shirted, bewhiskered, 
rough and desperate-looking men, all begrimed with smoke and 
mud, hurrying down the road toward the lines. These proved to 
be the Barratarians under Dominique You and Bluche, who had 
run all the way from the Fort St. John, where they had been sta- 
tioned since their release from prison. They immediately took 
charge of one of the twenty-four pounders. And, what is of far 
more importance, the Louisiana, saved yesterday by the resolution 
and skill of Lieutenant Thompson, is ready, at a moment's warn- 
ing, to let out cable and swing round, so as to*throw her balls 
obliquely across the plain. 

And all this is hidden from the foe, Avho will know nothing of 
what awaits them till they have passed the plantation houses of 
Chalmette and Bienvenu, only five hundred yards from the lines ! 

General Jackson' was not kept long in suspense. The spectacle 



1814.] JACKSON FORTIFIES. 237 

of the British advance was splendid in the extreme. " Forward they 
•came," says the author of " Jackson and New Orleans," '■'■ in solid 
columns, as compact and orderly as if on parade, under cover of a 
shower of rockets, and a continual fire from their artillery in front 
and their batteries on the levee. It was certainly a bold and im- 
posing demonstration, for such, as we are told by British officers, it 
was intended to be. To new soldiers, like the Americans, fresh from 
civic and j^eaceful pursuits, who had never witnessed any scenes of 
real warfare, it was certainly aformidable display of military power and 
discipline. Those veterans moved as steadily and closely together 
as if marching in review instead of ' in the cannon's mouth.' Their 
muskets catching the rays of the morning sun, nearly blinded the 
beholder with their brightness, whilst their gay and various uni- 
forms, red, gray, green, and tartan, afforded a pleasing relief to the 
winter-clad field and the somber objects around." 

Thus appeared the British host to the gazing multitude behind 
the American Hues ; for the author of the passage quoted learned 
his story from the lips of men who saw the dazzling sight. The 
Subaltern tells us how the American lines looked to the advancing 
army, and what reception greeted it. 

--"The enemy's corps of observation (Hinds' dragoons) fell back 
as we advanced, without offering in any way to impede our pro- 
gress, and it was impossible to guess, ignorant as we were of the 
position of the enemy's main body, at what moment opposition 
might be expected. Nor, in truth, was it a matter of much anxiety. 
Our spirits, in spite of the troubles of* the night, were good, and 
our expectations of success were high ; consequently, many rude 
jests Avere bandied about, and many careless words spoken ; for 
soldiers are, of all classes of men, the freest from care, and on that 
account, perhaps, the most happy. By being continually exposed 
to it, danger with them ceases to be frightful ; of death they have 
no more terror than the beasts that perish ; and even hardships, 
such as cold, wet, hunger, and bi'oken rest, lose at least part of 
their disagreeableness by the frequency of their recurrence. 

" Moving on in this merry mood, we advaiice<l about four or five 
miles without the smallest check or hinderance, when,, at length, we 
found ourselves in view of the enemy's army, posted in a very ad- 
vantageous manner. About forty yards in their front was a canal, 
which extended from tJ>e morass to within a short distance of the 



238 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1814. 

high road. Along their line were thrown up breastworks, not in- 
deed completed, but even now formidable. Upon the road, and at 
several other points, were erected powerful batteries, whilst the 
ship, Avith a large flotilla of gun-boats [no, sir — no gun-boats] 
flanked the whole position from the river. 

" When I say that we came in sight of the enemy, I do not mean 
that he was gradually exposed to us in such a manner as to leave 
time for cool examination and reflection. On the right, indeed, he 
was seen for some time ; but on the left a few houses built at a 
turning in the road entirely concealed him ; nor was it till they had 
gained that turning, and beheld the muzzles of his guns pointed 
toward them, that those who moved in this direction were aware 
of their proximity to danger. But that danger was indeed near 
they were quickly taught ; for scarcely had the head of the column 
passed the houses, when a deadly fire was opened from both the 
battery and the shipping. That the Americans are excellent marks- 
men, as well with artillery as with rifles, we have had frequent 
ca.use to acknowledge ; but, perhaps, on no occasion did they assert 
their claim to the title of good artillerymen more effectually than on 
the present. Scarce a ball passed over, or fell short of its markj 
but all striking full into the midst of our ranks occasioned terrible 
havoc. The shrieks of the wounded, therefore, the crash of fire- 
locks, and the fall of such as were killed, caused at first some little con- 
fusion ; and what added to the panic was, that from the houses be- 
side which we stood bright flames suddenly burst out. The Ameri- 
cans, expecting this attack, had filled them with combustibles for 
the purpose, and, directing against them one or two guns, loaded 
with red-hot shot, in an instant set theui on fire. The scene was 
altogether very sublime. A tremendous cannonade mowed down 
our ranks and deafened us with its roar, whilst two large chateaux 
and their out-buildings almost scorched us with the flames and 
blinded us with the smoke which they emitted. , 

" The infantry, however, were not long sulfered to remain thus 
exposed, but, being ordered to quit the path, and to form line in the 
fields, the artillery was brought up and opj)osed to that of the 
enemy. But the contest was in every respect imcqual, since their 
artillery for exceeded ours, both in numerical strength and weight of 
metal. The consequence was that in half an hour two of our field- 
pieces and one field-mortar were dismounted ; many of the gunners 



1814.] JACKSON FOKTIFIES. 239 

were killed ; and the rest, after an ineffectual attempt to silence the 
fire of the shipping, were obliged to retire. 

" In the mean time the infantry, having formed line, advanced 
under a heavy discharge of round and grape-shot, till they were 
checked hy the appearance of the canal. Of its depth they were 
of com'se ignorant, and to attempt its passage witliout having as- 
certained whether it could be forded, might have been productive 
of fatal consequences. A halt was accordingly ordered, and the 
men were commanded to shelter themselves as well as they could 
■from the enemy's fire. For this purpose they were hurried into 
a wet ditch, of sufficient depth to cover the knees, where, leaning- 
forward, they concealed themselves behind some high rushes which 
grew upon its brink, and thus escaped many bullets which fell around 
them Iq all directions. 

" Thus fared it with the left of the army, whilst the right, though 
less exposed to the cannonade, was not more successful in its object. 
The same impediment which checked one column forced the other 
likewise to pause, and, after having driven in an advanced body of 
the enemy, and endeavored without effect to penetrate through the 
marsh, it also was commanded to halt. In a word, all thought of 
attacking Avas for this day abandoned, and it now only remained to 
withdraw the troops from their present perilous situation with as 
little loss as possible. 

" The first thing to be done was to remove the dismounted guns. 
Upon this enterprise a party of seamen was employed, who, running 
forward to the spot where they lay, lifted them, in spite of the 
whole of the enemy's fire, and bore them oflT in triumph. As soon 
as this was effected regiment after regiment stole away ; not in a 
body, but one by one, uuder the same discharge which saluted their 
approach. But a retreat thus conducted necessarily occupied much 
time. Noon had therefore long passed before the last corps was 
brought off, and when we again began to muster twilight was a[> 
proaching." 

What a day for the heroes of the Peninsula and the stately ninety- 
third Highlanders !-^lying low in wet ditches, some of them for 
seven hours, under that relentless cannonade, and then slinking 
away behind fences, huts, and burning houses, or even crawling 
along on the bottom of ditches, happy to get beyond the reach of 
those rebounding balls, that " knocked down the soldiers," savs 



240 LIFK OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1S14. 

Captain Cooke, " and tossed them into the air like old bags." And 
what a day»for General Jackson an(f his four thousand, who saw 
the magnificent advance of the morning, not without misgivings, 
and then beheld the most splendid and imposing army they had ever 
seen sink, as it were, into the earth and vanish from their sight ! 
This reconnoissance cost General Pakenham a loss of fifty killed 
and wounded. The casualties on the American side were nine killed 
and eight wounded. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE BRITISH ADVANCE A SECOND TIME. 

What next ? General Pakenham had seen the American lines. 
The inference he drew from the sight, was one of the strangest. 
The British general, at a council of war, attended by Cochrane, 
Malcolm, Hardy, Trowbridge, Codrington, Gibbs, and Keane, came ■ 
to the conclusion that the way to carry the American position was 
to make regular approaches to it, as to a walled and fortified city. 
Sevastopol anticipated and rehearsed ! And, what is remarkable, 
the engineer who directed the construction of the British batteries 
on the Delta of the Mississippi was no other than that Sir John 
Burgoyne Avhom the Russians, with their hasty earth-works, foiled in 
the Crimea for so many months, forty years after. 

During the last three days of the year 1814 the British army re- 
mained inactive on the plain, two miles below the American lines, 
and in full view of them, while the sailors were employed in bring- 
ing from the fleet thirty pieces of cannon of large caliber, with 
which to execute the scheme that had been resolved upon. By the 
evening of the 31st of December the thirty pieces of cannon from the 
fleet (twenty long eighteens and ten twenty-fours) had reached the 
Britiijh'camp. All that day the Americans had been amused with 
a cannonade from a bnttery erected near the swamp, under cover of 
which parties of English troops attempted, but with small success, 
to reconnoiter the American position. As soon aa it was (^uite 
dark operations of far greater importance commenced. "One 
half the army," says a British ofiicer, " was ordered out, and marched 



1 815.J THE BRITISH AGAIN A 1) V A X ( ' E . 241 

to the front, passing the pickets, and halting about three liundred 
yards from the enemy's line. Here it was resolved to throw np a 
chain of works; and here the greater part of this detachment, lay- 
ing down their firelocks, apiilied themselves vigorously to their 
tasks, while the rest stood armed and prepared for their defense. The 
night was dark, and our people maintained a profound silence ; by 
which means not an idea of what was going on existed in the 
American camp. As we labored, too, with all diligence, six batt- 
eries Avere completed long before dawn, in which were mounted 
thirty pieces of heavy cannon ; when, falling back a little way, we 
united ourselves to the remainder of the infixntry, and lay down 
behind the rushes in readiness to act as soon as we should be 
wanted." 

The second Sunday of this strange mutual siege had come round. 
The light of another New Year's day dawned upon the world. 

The English soldiers had not worked so silently during the night 
upon their new batteries but that an occasional sound of hammering, 
dulled by distance, had been heard in the American lines. The 
outposts, too, had sent in news of the advance of British troops, 
who were busy at something, though the outposts could not say 
what. The veterans of the American army, that is, those who had 
smelt hostile gunpowder before this campaign, gave it as their 
opinion that there would be warm work again at daybreak. 

Long before the dawn the dull hammering ceased. When the 
day broke, a fog so dense that a man could discern nothing at a 
distance of twenty yards, covered all the plain. Not a sound was 
heard in the direction of the enemy's .camj), nor did the American 
sentinels nearest their position hear or see any thing to excite alarm. 
At eight o'clock the fog was still impenetrable, and the silence 
unbroken. As late even as nine, the American troops, who we're 
on slightly higher ground than the British, saw little prospect of 
the fog's breaking away, still less of any hostile movement on the 
part of the foe. The veterans begin to retract their opinion. We 
are to have another day of waiting, think the younger soldiers ; the 
gay Creoles not forgetting that the day was the fii"st of a new year. 

The general conceding something to the pleasure-loving part of 

his army — permitted a brief respite from tho orduon'^ toil of the 

week, and ordered a grand review of the whole army, on the open 

ground between the lines and his own head-quarters. To-day, too, 

11 



242 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1815. 

for the first time in several clays, the Louisiana remained at her safe 
anchorage above the lines, and a large number of her crew went 
ashore on the western bank, and took post in Commodore Patterson's 
new battery there. But this was not for holiday reasons. A de- 
serter came in the night before, and informed the commodore that 
the enemy had established two enormous howitzers in a battery on 
the levee, where balls were kept red hot for the purpose of firing 
the obnoxious vessel the moment she should come within range 
again. So the commodore kept his vessel safe, lauded two more of 
her great guns, and ordered ashore men enough to work them 

Toward ten o'clock the fog rose from the American position, and 
disclosed to the impatient enemy the scene behind the lines. A gay 
and brilliant scene it was, framed and curtained in fleecy fog. " The 
fog dispersed," remarks Captain Hill, "with a rapidity perfectly 
surprising ; the change of scene at a theater could scarcely be more 
sudden, and the bright sun shone forth, diffusing warmth and glad- 
ness." " Being at this time," says the Subaltern, " only three hun- 
dred yards distant, we could perceive all that Avas going forward 
with great exactness. The difierent regiments were upon parade, 
and, being dressed in holiday suits, presented really a fine appear- 
ance. Mounted officers were riding backward and forward through 
the ranks, bands were playing, and colors floating in. the air; — in a 
word, all seemed jollity and gala." The general-in-chief had not yet 
appeared upon the ground. He had been up and doing before the 
dawn, and was now lying on a couch at head-quarters, before riding 
out to review the troops. 

In a moment how changed the scene ! At a signal from the cen- 
tral battery of the enemy, the whole of their thirty pieces of cannon 
opened fire full upon the Amei-ican lines, and the air was filled with 
the red glare and hideous scream of hundreds of congreve rockets! 
As completely taken by surprise as the enemy had been on the night 
of the twenty-third, the troops were thrown into instantaneous con- 
fusion. " The ranks were broken," continues the Subaltern, " the 
difierent corps dispersing, fled in all directions, while the utmost 
terror and disorder appeared to prevail. Instead of nicely dressed 
lines, nothing but confused- crowds could now be observed; nor 
was it w^ithout much difficulty that order was finally restored. Oh, 
that roe had charged at that instant .^" 

The enemy, having learned which house was the head-quarters 



1815.] THE BRITISH AGAIN ADVAXUE. 243 

of the general, directed a prodigious fire irpoa it, and the first news 
of the cannonade came to Jackson in the sound of crashing porti- 
coes and outbuildings. During the first ten minutes of the fire, 
one hundred balls struck the mansion, but, though some of the 
general's suite were covered with rubbish, and Colonel Butler was 
knocked down, they all escaped and made their way to the lines 
without a scratch. 

The Subaltern is mistaken in saying that the troops fled in all 
directions. There was but one direction in. which to fly either to 
safety or to duty ; for, on that occasion, the post of duty and the 
post of safety were the same, namely, close behind the line of de- 
fense. For ten minutes, however, the American batteries, always 
before so promjot with their responsive thunder, were silent, while 
the troops were running in the hottest haste to their Several jjosts. 

Ten guns were in position in the American lines, beside those in 
the battery on the other side of the river. Upon Jackson's coming 
to the front, he found his artillerymen at their posts, waiting with 
lighted matches to open fire upon the foe, as soon as the dense 
masses of mingled smok.e and mist that enveloped their batteries 
should roll away. " Jackson's first glance," as Mr. Walker informs 
us, " when he reached the line, was in the direction of Humphi-ey's 
battery. There stood this right arm of the artillery, dressed in his 
usual plain attire, smoking that eternal cigar, coolly leveling his 
guns and directing his men. 

" ' Ah !' exclaimed the general, ' all is right ; Humphrey is at his 
post, and will return their compliments presently.' 

" Then, accompanied by his aids, he walked down to the left, 
stopping at each battery to inspect its condition, and waving his 
cap to the men as they gave him three cheers, and observing to the 
soldiers, 

" * Don't mind those rockets, they are nlere toys to amuse 
children.' *' 

Colonel Butler, whom the general had seen jDrostrated at head- 
quarters, came running up to the lines covered with dust. " Why, 
Colonel Butler," said the general, " is that you ? I thought you 
were killed." 

" No, general ; only knocked over." 

Captain Humphrey soon caught a glimpse of the British batteries ; 
structures of narrow front and slight elevation, lying low and dim 



244 LIFE or ANDRKW JACKSON, [1815. 

upon the field ; no such broad target as the mile-long lines of the 
American position. Adjusting a twelve-pounder with the utmost 
exactness, he quietly gave the word, 

" Let her ofi'." 

And the firing from the American lines began. The other bat- 
teries instantly joined in the strife. Ere long the British howitzers 
on the levee and the battery of Commodore Patterson on the oppo- 
site bank exchanged a vigorous fire. For the space of an hour and 
a half a cannonade so loud and rapid shook the Delta as had never 
before been heard in the western world. Vain are all words to 
convey to the un warlike reader an idea of this tremendous scene. 
Imagine fifty pieces of cannon, of large caliber, each discharged from 
once to thrice a minute ; often a simultaneous discharge of half a 
dozen pieces ■; an average of two discharges every second ; while 
plain and river were so densely covered with smoke that the gun- 
ners aimed their guns from recollection chiefly, and knew scarcely 
any thing of the effect of their fire. 

Well aimed, however, Avere the British guns, as the American 
lines soon began to exhibit. Most of their balls buried themselves 
harmlessly in the soft, elastic earth of the thick embankment. Many 
flew over its summit and did bloody execution on those who were 
biinging up ammunition, as well as on some who were retiring from 
their posts. Several balls struck and nearly sunk a boat laden with 
stores that was moored to the levee two hundred yards behind the 
lines. The cotton bales of the batteries nearest the river were 
knocked about in all directions, and set on fire, adding fresh vol- 
umes to the already impenetrable smoke. One of Major Planche's 
men was wounded in trying to extinguish this most annoying fire. 
A thirty-two pounder in Lieutenant Crawley's battery was hit and 
damaged. The carriage of a twenty-four was broken. One of the 
twelves was silenced. Two powder-carriages, one containing a 
hundred pounds of the explosive material, blew up with a report so 
terrific as to silence for a moment the enemy's fire, and draw from 
them a faint cheer. And still the lines continued to Aoinit forth a fire 
that knew neither cessation nor pause, until the guns grew so hot 
that it was difiicult and dangerous to load them. And after an 
hour and a half of such work as this no man in Jackson's army 
could say with certainty Avh ether the English batteries had been 
seriously damaged. 



1815.J THK BllITISH AGAIN ADVANCE, 245 

It was nearly noon when it began to be perceived that the Brit- 
ish fire was slackening. The American batteries were then order- 
ed to cease firing for the guns to cool and the smoke to roll away. 
What a scene greeted the anxious gaze of the troops when, at 
length, the British position was disclosed ! Those formidable bat- 
teries, which had excited such consternation an hour and a half be- 
fore, were totally destroyed, and presented but formless masses of 
soil and broken guns ; while the sailors who had manned them were 
seen running from tliem to the rear, and the army that had been 
drawn up behind the batteries, ready to storm the lines as soon as 
a breach had been made in them, had again ignominiously " taken 
to the ditch." 

*' Never," remarks the author of " Jackson and New Orleans," 
" was work more completely done — more perfectly finished and 
rounded oif. Earth and heaven fairly shook with the prolonged 
shouts of the Americans over this spectacle. Still the remorseless 
artillerists would not cease their fire. The British infantry would 
noAV and then raise their heads and j^eep forth from the ditches in 
which they were so ingloriously ensconced. The level plain pre- 
sented but a few knolls or elevations to shelter them, and the 
American artillerists were as skillful as riflemen in picking off" those 
who exposed ever so small a portion of their bodies. Several ex- 
trshordinary examples of this skill were communicated to the writer 
by a British officer who was attached to Pakenham's army. A 
number of the officers of the 93d having taken refuge in a shallow 
hollow behind a slight elevation, it was j^roposed that the only mar- 
ried oflicer of the party should lie at the bottom, it being deemed 
the safest place. Lieutenant Phaups was the officer indicated, and 
laughingly assumed the position assigned him. This moimd had 
attracted the attention of the American gunners, and a great quan- 
tity of shot was thrown at it. Lieutenant Phaups could not resist the 
anxiety to see what was going on in front, and peeping forth, with not 
more than half of his heacT exposed, was struck by a twelve-pound 
shot, and instantly killed. His companions buried him on the spot 
on which he fell, in full uniform. Several officers and men were 
picked off" in a similar manner." 

Those hogsheads of sugar were the fatal mistake of the English 
engineers. They afforded absolutely no protection against the ter- 
rible fire of the American batteries ; the balls gomg straight 



246 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1815. 

through them, and killing men in the very center of the works. 
Hence it was that in little moi'e than an hour the batteries were 
heaps of ruins, and the guns dismantled, broken, and immovable. 
The howitzers, too, on the levee, after waging an active duel with 
Commodore Patterson on the other side of the river, were silenced 
and overthrown by a few discharges from Captain Humphrey's 
twelve-pounders. Nothing remained for the discomfited army but 
to make the best of their way to their old position ; and so inces- 
sant was the American fire during the afternoon, that it was only 
when night spread her mantle over the plain that all the army suc- 
ceeded in withdrawing. 

The British loss on the 1st of January was about thirty killed and 
forty wounded ; the Americans, eleven killed and twenty-three 
wounded. Most of the American slain Avere not engaged in the 
battle, but were struck down a considerable distance behind the lines, 
while they were looking on as mere spectators. 

The cotton error was quickly repaired. Every bale of that delu- 
sive material was removed from the works, and its place supplied 
with the black and spongy soil of the Delta, which the Sunday can- 
nonade had shown to be a perfect defense ; the balls sinking into it 
out of sight without shaking the embankment. The Hues were 
strengthened in every part, and new cannon mounted upon them. 
Work was continued upon the second lino, a mile and a half in ^he 
rear. Even a third line of defense was marked out and begun, still 
nearer the city. On the opposite bank of the river, the old works 
were rejDaired and strengthened, and new ones commenced. 

What the enemy would attempt next was a mystery which Gen- 
eral Jackson anxiously revolved in his mind, and strove in all ways 
to penetrate. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday passed 
away, and still the hostile army made no movement which gave the 
American general a clue to their design, if design they had. Strong- 
men and weak men, good men and men less good, are all alike liable 
to the error of judging others by themaelves. During these days, 
therefore, Jackson inclined to the opinion that his lines would not 
again be attacked, and so wrote to the secretary of war. While 
apf)arently bending all his energies to the sole object of strengthen- 
ing his position, his mind Avas racked Avith fear of being surprised 
in another quarter. How natural such an idea ! If thirty pieces of 
cannon could not penetrate the lines, what could? If, on the 1st of 



1815.] THE BBITISH AGAIN ADVAXCK. 247 

January, the American position was found impregnable, could it be 
deemed less so after three thousand men had worked upon it for 
nearly a week ? Two attempts haA'ing signally and ignorainiously 
failed, Avould any general risk his army and his reputation upon a 
third ? 

On Wednesday morning, January the 4th, the long-looked for 
Kentuckians, two thousand two hundred and fifty in number, reached 
New Orleans. Seldom has a reenforcement been so anxiously ex- 
pected ; never did the arrival of one create keener disappointment. 
They were so ragged that the men, as they marched shivering through 
the streets, were observed to hold together theii* garments with their 
hands to cover their nakedness ; and, what was far worse, because 
beyond remedy, not one man in ten was well armed, and only one 
man in three had any arms at all. It was a bitter moment for Gen- 
eral Jackson when he heard this ; and it was a bitter thing for those 
brave and devoted men, who had fondly hoped to find in the abun- 
dance of New Orleans an end of their exposure and destitution, to 
learn that the general had not a musket, a blanket, a tent, a garment, 
a rag, to give them. A body of Louisiana militia, too, who had ar- 
rived a day or two before from Baton Rouge, were in a condition 
only less deplorable. Here was a force of nearly three thousand 
men, every man of whom was pressingly wanted, paralyzed and 
useless from want of those arms that had been sent on their way 
down the river sixty days before. It would have fared ill, I fear, 
with the captain of that loitering boat, if he had chanced to arrive 
just then, for the general was wroth exceedingly. Up the river go 
new expresses to bring him down in irons. The^ bring him, at last, 
the astonished man, but days and days too late. The old soldiers 
of this campaign mention that the general's observations upon the 
character of the hapless captain, his parentage, and upon various 
portions of his mortal and immortal frame, were much too forcible 
for repetition in print. 

The legislature of Louisiana and the people of New Orleans be- 
haved on this occasion with prompt and noble generosity. Major 
Latour records what was done by them and by the peoi^le for the re- 
lief of the destitute soldiers : " Within one week twelve hundred 
blanket cloaks, two hundred and seventy-five waistcoats, eleven 
hmidred and twenty-seven pairs of pantaloons, eight hundred shirts, 
four hundred and ten pairs of shoes, and a great number of mat- 



248 LIFE OF AN DUE W JACKSON. [1815. 

tresses, were made up, or purcliased ready made, and distributed 
among our brethren in arms, who stood in the greatest need of them." 

The enemy, meanwhile, had recovered tlieir spirits and increased 
their numbers. Two regiments, tlie seventh and forty-third in- 
fantry, numbering together seventeen hundred, under General John 
Lambert, had arrived from England, infusing new life into tlie dis- 
heartened army, and raising its force to seven thousand three hun- 
dred men. General Pakenham had formed a bold and soldierlike 
design, for the execution of which the Avhole army was preparing, 
and the camp was alive with expectation. The " chained dog" 
would at length get at his enemy and growl no more. "The 
new scheme," says the Subaltern, " was worthy, for its boldness, of 
the school in which Sir Edward had studied his profession. It was 
determined to divide the army ; to send part across the river, who 
should seize the enemy's guns, and turn them on themselves; whilst 
the remainder should at the same time make a general assault alono* 
the whole intrenchment. But before this plan could be put into 
execution it would be necessary to cut a canal across the entire neck 
of land from the Bayou de Catiline to the river, of sufficient width 
and depth to admit of boats behig brought up from the lake. Upon 
this arduous undertaking were the troops immediately employed. 
Being divided into four companies, they labored by turns, day and 
night ; one j^arty relieving another after a stated number of hours, 
in such order as that the work should never be entirely deserted. 
The fatigue undergone during the prosecution of this attempt no 
words can sufficiently describe ; yet it was pursued without repin- 
ing, and at length, by unremitting exertions, they succeeded in eftect- 
ing their purpose by the 6th of January." 

The lines, then, were to be stormed ! As conceived, the plan 
was that of a general ; as carried out — but we must not anticipate. 
The vital clause of the scheme was that which contemplated the 
carrying of the works on the western hnn\i first, and the turning of 
Commodore Patterson's great guns jipon the back of Jackson's 
lines. Let that be done, and the lines are untenable, and will re- 
quire little stjorming. If that is not done, or not done in time, the 
storming of the lines will be a piece of work such as British soldiers 
have seldom attempted. The naked bodies of the troops will have 
to encounter that before which sugar hogsheads and earth-works 
crumbled to pieces in an hour ! 



1815.] THE BRITISH AGAIN ADVANCK. 249 

It was not till Friday evening, the sixth of the new year, that 
General Jackson began to so much as suspect the enemy's design. 
On that day Sailing-Master Johnson, who was posted at the Chef- 
Menteur, seeing a small English brig on her way from the fleet to 
the Bienvenu, laden, as he supposed, with supplies for the British 
army, darted out ujDon her with three boats and captured her and 
ten prisoners. From these prisoners the American general learned 
one important fact, that the enemy were deepening and prolonging 
a canal across the plain. Then their plan began to dawn upon 
Jackson's mind. Early the next morning Commodore Patterson 
walked behind the levee of the western bank to a point directly op-, 
posite the British position, and spent several hours there in watch- 
ing their movements. Upon his return the general no longer 
doubted that in a very few days or hours he would have to resist 
a simultaneous attack on both sides of the rivel-. The bustle in the 
enemy's camp, and the forward state of their preparations, indi- 
cated that ere the sun of another Sunday had appeared above the 
horizon they might be upon him. 

On Saturday afternoon Jackson was much at his high window 
at head-quarters, observing the enemy's movements. He had done 
what he could do to prepare for them, and little then remained 
but to await the result with what calmness he could. He had been 
showing the lines to his old friend General Adair, of Kentucky, and 
asking his opinion of them. 

" Well," said Jackson to Adair, after they had gone the rounds, 
" what do you think of our situation ? Can we defend these works 
or not ?" 

" There is one way," replied the Kentuckian, " and but one way, 
in which we can hope to defend them. We must have a strong 
corps of reserve to meet the enemy's main attack, wherever it may 
be. No single part of the lines," continued Adair, " is strong 
enough to resist the united force of the enemy. But, with a strong 
column held in our rear, ready to advance upon any threatened 
point, we can beat tllem off." 

This was an important suggestion. Two heads are better than 
one, Jackson might have said, and, perhaps, did say, for he Avas a 
man addicted to proverbs. He adopted General Adair's idea. 
"He agreed," says Adair, " that I should act with the Kentuck- 
ians as a reserve corps, and directed me to select my own ground 
11* 



250 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1815. 

for encampment, to govern my men as I thought most proper, and 
that I would receive no orders but from himself" 

And off to town gallops Adair, on the general's own white horse, 
to prevail on the veteran guard to lend him some of their muskets 
for three days only, so that he was able to employ several hundreds 
of his troops in that important service. 

Such was the position of aflairs on Jackson's side of the river. 
On the western bank the prospect vvas less promising. Commo- 
dore Patterson was there, and he had spent the week in arduous 
labor ; but all his exertions had been directed toward the annoy- 
ance of the enemy on the other side of ihe river, not to the defense 
of his own position. As late as Wednesday morning nothing had 
been done to prepare for an attack on the western bank. " During 
the 2d and 3d," wrote Commodore Patterson to the secretary of 
the navy, " I landed from the ship and mounted, as the former ones, 
on the banks of the rive)', four more twelve-pounders, and erected 
a furnace for heating shot, to destroy a number of buildings which 
intervened between General Jackson's lines and the camp of the 
enemy, and occupied by him. On the evening of the 4th I suc- 
ceeded in firing a number of them, and some rice stacks by. my hot 
shot, which the enemy attempted to extinguish, notwithstanding 
the heavy fire I kept up, but which at length compelled them to 
desist. On the 6th and 7th I erected another furnace, and mounted 
oil the banks of the river two more twenty-four pounders, which 
had been brought u]) from the English Turn by the exertions of 
Colonel Caldwell, of the ' drafted militia of this state, and brought 
Avithin and mounted on the intrenchments on this side the river one 
twelve-pounder. In addition to which, General Morgan, command- 
ing the militia on this side, planted two brass six-pound field-pieces 
in his lines, which were incomplete, having been commenced only 
on the 4th. These three pieces were the only ccomon on the lines. 
All the others, being mounted on the bank of the river, with a view 
to aid the right of General Jackson's lines on the opposite shore, 
and to flanjc the enemy should they attempt tc^march up the road 
leading along the levee, or erect batteries on the same, of course 
could render no aid in defense of General Morgan's lines. My 
batteiy was manned in part from the crew of the ship, and in part 
by militia detailed for that service by General Morgan, as I had 
not seamen enough to fully man them." 



1815.] THE BRITISH AGAIN ADVANCE. 251 

On Saturday afternoon, upon Commodore Patterson's reporting 
to General Jackson what he had observed at the enemy's camp, it 
was determined to send over the river, to reenforce General Mor- 
gan, a body of Kentuckians. Colonel Davis and four hundred of 
those troo^js were detailed for that purpose. At seven o'clock in 
the evening, after a day of hard duty, during which they had only 
once broken their fast. Colonel Davis and his men marched from 
the lines toward New Orleans, where they were to receive their 
arms and cross the river by the ferry. At the city it was found 
that only two hvmdred muskets, and those old and defective, could 
be procured. Only two hundred men, therefore, crossed the river. 
It was two o'clock before they reached, the western shore. Fa- 
tigued, hungry, and chilled to the bone with long waiting, they 
formed upon the levee, and set out for General Morgan's posi- 
tion. Over a road miry from the recent rains, walking sometimes 
knee deep in mud and water, the Kentuckians made their way, 
and reached Morgan's soon after four o'clock in the morning, 
as unfit for any duty involving danger and exertion as can be im- 
agined. 

Even with this reenforcement. General Morgan's command amomit- 
ed to no more than eight hundred and twelve men, all militia, all 
badly armed, posted behind works upon which four hundred men 
had labored for three days. Jackson should have spared a few 
companies of regulars for this side of the river, which had suddenly 
become so important ; although, for his own lines, he had but three 
thousand two hundred men, against an army which he supposed to 
consist of twelve thousand disciplined troops. With another day 
of preparation and clear insight into the enemy's design he 
would have done somethino- effectual for the western bank. It 
was too late then. The days of preparation were numbered — 
were passed. Fare with him as it might to-morrow, he could do no 
more. 

Nolte tells us that Commodore Patterson, on his way from head- 
quarters to his post on the other side of the river, said to him as he 
passed, " I expect you will see some fun between this and to-mor- 
row." 

Nolte adds that only himself and a few others knew what was 
expected. 

But when, soon after dark, the noise of preparation in the British 



252 LIFE OF AKDEEW JACKSOX. [1815. 

camp grew louder and came nearer, there could not have been much 
doubt in the lines that another most unquiet Sunday was in reserve 
for them. There was much silent and rather griui preparation in 
Jackson's camp ; a cleaning of arms, a counting out of cartridges, 
and adjustment of flints, and a careful loading of muskets and rifles. 
Beside the thirty-two-pounder was heaped up a bushel or two of 
musket balls and fragments of iron, enough to fill the piece up to 
the muzzle, and which toill fill it up to the muzzle if the enemy 
come to close quarters, and deal such wholesale death among 
them as no thirtv-two-pounder has ever dealt before. Yes, grim- 
ness certainly prevails to a considerable extent. We are in earn- 
est. Jackson walks slowly along the lines just before dark. He, 
too, is grim, but confident. He wears the look of a man whose 
mind is wholly made up, and who clearly Icnows what he will do in 
any and every case. He stops occasionally, to see that the stacked 
muskets are all loaded, and says to Planche's men, as he goes along 
their part of the lines : 

" Don't fire till you can see the whites of their eyes; and if you 
want to sleep, sleep upon your arms." 

There was not much sleeping that night. One-half the men re- 
mained in the line's ; the other half went to the camp as usual, and 
relieved their comrades about one. " And yet," says Nolte, " few 
were prepared for to-morrow's tragedy." But who could have 
been prepared for it ? Was there one man in either army who had 
formed any image of the morrow's events Avhich at aU resembled 
the reality ? iSTot one ; »ot Jackson, though he came nearest, j^rob- 
ably ; least of all, poor Pakenham. 

Mishap befell the party imder Colonel Thornton, who were de- 
tailed for the attack on the western bank. The water, owing to 
the fall of the river, was so low in the canal, that it was not until 
eight hours after the appointed time of embarking that enough boats 
were launched into the Mississippi to convey across one-third of the 
designated force. Instead of fourteen hundred men, only four hun- 
dred and ninety-eight went over. Instead of embarking immediately 
after dark, it was nearly daybreak before they reached the opposite 
bank. Instead of landing directly opposite the British "position, 
the swift deceptive cixrrent swept them down a mile and a half be- 
low it. But this little band, thus balked and delayed, Avas led by a 
soldier, Colonel W. Thornton, thejnost daring and efficient man in 



1815.] THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 253 

the British army, who, at Bladensburgh, and wherever else he had 
served, had shown what the British army Avill do when vaior and 
good conduct are weightier claims to advancement than being a 
Duke of Wellington's brother-in-law. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE EICtHTH of JANUARY. 

At one o'clock on the morning of this memorable day, on a couch 
in a room of the M'Carty mansion-house. General Jackson lay 
asleep, in his worn uniform. Several of his aids slept upon the floor 
in the same apartment, all equipped for the field, except that their 
sword-belts were unbuckled, and their swords and pistols laid aside. 
A sentinel paced the adjacent passage. Sentinels moved noiselessly 
about the building, which loomed up large, dim and silent in the 
foggy night, among the darkening trees. Most of those who slept 
at all that night were still asleep, and there Avas as yet little stir in 
either camp to disturb their slumbers. 

Commodore Patterson was not among the sleepers. Soon after 
dark, accompanied by his faithful aid. Shepherd, he again took 
his position on the western bank of the river, directly opposite to 
where Colonel Thornton Avas struggling to launch his boats into the 
stream, and there he watched and Ustened till nearly midnight. He 
could hear almost every thing that passed, and could see by the light 
of the camp-fires, a line of red coats draAvn up along the levee. He 
heard the cries of the tugging sailors, as they drew the boats along 
the shallow, caving canal, and their shouts of satisfaction as each 
boat Avas launched with a loud splash into the Mississippi. From 
the great commotion, and the sound of so many voices, he began 
to surmise that the main body of the enemy Avere about to cross. 
and that the day Avas to be lost or won on his side of the river. 
There Avas terror in the thought, and wisdom too ; and if General 
Pakenham had been indeed a general the commodore's surmise 
would have been correct. Patterson's first thought Avas to drop the 
ship Louisiana down upon them. • But no ; the Louisiana had been 



• 



•254 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [l815. 

stripped of half her guns and all her men, and had on board, above 
water, hundreds of pounds of powder : for she was then serving as 
powder-magazine to the western bank. To man the ship,_moreover, 
would involve the withdrawal of all the men from the river batteries ; 
which, if the main attack were on Jackson's side of the river, would 
be of such vital importance to him. Oh ! for the little Carolina again, 
with Captain Henly and a hundred men on board of her ! 

Revolving such thoughts in his anxious mind. Commodore Pat- 
terson hastened back to his post, again oliserving and lameuting the 
weakness of General Morgan's line of defense. All that he could 
do in the circumstances was to dispatch Mr. Shepherd across the 
river to inform General Jackson of what they had seen, and what 
they feared, and to beg an immediate reenforcement. 

Informing the captain of the guard that he had important intelli- 
gence to communicate, Shepherd was conducted to the room in which 
the general was sleejiing, 

" Who's there ?" asked Jackson, raising his head as the door 
opened. 

Mr. Shepherd gave his name and stated his errand, adding that 
General Morgan agreed with Commodore Patterson in the opinion 
that more troops would be required to defend the lines on the west- 
ern bank. 

" Hurry back," replied the general, as he rose, " and tell Gen- 
eral Morgan that ho is mistaken. The main attack will be on this 
side, and I have no men to spare. He must mamtain his position at 
all hazards." 

Shepherd recrossed the river with the general's answer, which 
could not have been very reassuring to Morgan and his inexperienced 
men, not a dozen of whom had ever been in action. 

Jackson looked at his watch. It was past one. 

" Gentlemen," said he to his dozing aids, " we have slept enough. 
Rise, The enemy will be upon us in a few minutes. I must go and 
see Coffee." 

The order was obeyed very promptly. Sword belts were buckled ; 
pistols resumed ; and in a few minutes the party were ready to begin 
the duties pf the day. There was little for the American troops to 
do but to repair to their posts. By four o'clock in the morning, 
along the whole hue of works, every man was in his place and every 
thing was ready. A little later, General Adair marched down the 



1815.] THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 255 

reserve of a thousand Kentuckians to the rear of General Cai-roll's 
position, and, halting them fifty yards from the works, went forward 
himself to join the line of men peering over the top of the embank- 
ment into the fog and darkness of the morning. The position of 
the reserve was most fortunately chosen. It was almost directly 
behind that part of the lines which a deserter from Jackson's army 
had yesterday told General Pakenham was their weakest point ! 
And the deserter was half right. He had deserted on Friday, before 
there had been any thought of the reserve, and he forgot to mention 
that Cotfee and Carroll's men, over two thousand in number, were 
the best and coolest shots in the world. What a terrible trap his 
half-true information led a British column into ! 

Not long after the hour when the American general had been 
roused from his couch, General Pakenham, who had slept an hour or 
two at the Villere mansion, also rose, and rode immediately to the 
bank of the river, where Thornton had just embarked his diminished 
force. He leatned all that the reader knows of the delay and diffi- 
culty that had there occurred, and lingered long upon the spot listen, 
ing for some sound that should indicate the whereabouts of Thorn- 
ton. But no sound was heard, as the swift Mississippi had carried 
the boats far down out of hearing. Surely Pakenham must have 
known that the vital part of his plan was, for that morning, frustra- 
ted. Surely he will hold back his troops from the assault until Thorn- 
ton announces himself. The doomed man had no such thought. 
The story goes that he had been irritated by a taunt of Admiral 
Cochrane, who had said, that if the army could not take those mud- 
banks, defended by ragged militia, he would do it with two thousand 
sailors armed only with cutlasses and pistols. And, besides, Paken- 
ham believed that nothing could resist the calm and determined onset 
of the troops he led. He had no thought of waiting for Thornton, 
imless, perhaps, till daylight. 

Before four o'clock the British troojss were up, and in the several 
positions assigned them. Let us note, as accurately as possible, the 
distribution of the British forces. The official statements of the 
general aid us little here ; foi;, as an English officer observed, nothing 
was done on this awful day as it was intended to be done. The 
actual positions of the various corps at four o'clock in the morning, 
and the duty assigned to each, as I gather after the study of about 
thirty narratives of the battle, were as follows : 



256 LIFE OF ANDJgKW JACKSON. [1815. 

First, and chiefly. On the borders of the cypress swamp, half a 
mile below^that part of the lines where Carroll commanded and 
Adair was ready to support him, was a powerful column of nearly 
three thousand men, under the command of General Gibbs. This 
column was to storm the lines where they were supposed to be 
weakest, keeping close to the wood, and as far as possible from the 
enfilading fire of Commodore Patterson's batteries. This was the 
main column of attack. It consisted of three entire regiments, the 
fourth, the twenty-first, and the forty-fourth, with three companies of 
the ninety-fifth rifles. The forty-fourth, an Irish regiment, which 
had seen much service in America, was ordered to head this column 
and carry the fascines and ladders, which, having been deposited in 
a redoubt near the swamp over night, were to be taken up by the 
forty-fourth as they passed to the front. 

Secondly, and next in importance. A column of light troops, 
something less than a thousand in number, under the brave and en- 
ergetic Colonel Rennie, stood upon the high road that ran along the 
river. This column, at the concerted signal, was to spring forward 
and assail the strong river end of Jackson's lines. An isolated re- 
doubt, or horn-work, lay right in their path. We shall soon see 
what they did with it. 

Third. About midway between these two columns of attack 
stood that magnificent regiment of praying Highlanders, the ninety- 
third, mustering that morning about nine hundred and fifty men, 
superbly appointed, and nobly led by Colonel Dale. Here General 
Keane, who commanded all the troops on the left, commanded in 
person. His plan was, or seems to have been, to hold back his 
Highlanders until circumstances should invite or compel their ad- 
vance, and then to go to the aid of whichever column should appear 
most to need support. 

Fourth. There was a corps of about two hundred men, consist- 
ing of some companies of the ninety-fifth rifles and some of the fasi- 
leers, who had been employed at the battery all night, and were 
now wandering lost, and leadertess in the fog. They were designed 
to support the Highlanders, but never found them. 

Fifth. One of the black regiments, totally demoralized by cold 
and hardship, was posted in the wood on the very skirts of the 
swamp, for the purpose of " skirmishing," says the British ofiicial 
paper ; to amuse General Cofiee, let us say. The other black corps 



1815.] THE EIGHTH OF JAXUARY. 257 

was ordered to carry the ladders and fascines for General Keaue's 
division, and fine work they made of it. 

Sixth. On the open plain, eight hundred and fifty yards from 
Domiuguez' post in the American lines, was the English battery, 
mounting six eighteen- pounders, and containing an abundant supply 
of congreve rockets. 

Seventh. The reserve corps consisted of the greater part of the 
newly arrived regiments, the seventh and the forty-third, under the 
officer who accompanied them, General Lambert. This column 
was posted behind, all, a mile, perhaps, from tlie lines, and stood 
ready to advance when the word came. 

Such was the distribution of the British army on this chill and 
misty morning. What was the humor of the troops ? As they 
stood there, performing that most painful of all military duties, 
waiting, there was mu«h of the forced merriment with which young 
soldiers conceal from themselves the real nature of their feelings. 
But the older soldiers augured ill of the coming attack. Colonel 
Mullens, of the forty-fourth, openly expressed his dissatisfaction. 

" My regiment," said he, " has been ordered to execution. Their 
dead bodies are to be used as a bridge for the r^st of the army to 
march over." 

And, what was worse, in the dense darkness of the morning he 
had gone by the redoubt where were deposited the fliscines and lad- 
ders, and marched his men to the head of the column without one 
of them. Whether this neglect was owing to accident or design 
concerns us not. For that and other military sins Mullens was 
afterward cashiered. 

Colonel Dale, too, of the ninety-third Highlanders, a man of far 
difierent quality from Colonel Mullens, was grave and depressed. 

" What do you think of it ?" asked the physician of the regiment, 
when word was brought of Thornton's detention. 

Colonel Dale made no reply in words. Giving the doctor his 
watch and a letter, he simply said, " Give these to my wife ; I shall 
die at the head of my regiment." * 

Soon after four, General Pakenham rode away from the bank of 
the river, saying to one of his aids, " I will wait my own plans no 
longer." 

lie rode to the quarters of General Gibbs, who met him with 
another piece of ominous intelhgence. " The forty-fourth," Gibbs 



258 LIFE OF A N D K E \V JACKSON. [1815. 

said, " had not taken the fascines and ladders to the head of the 
column ; but he had sent an officer to cause the error to be rectified, 
and he "was then expectisg every moment a report from that regi- 
ment." General Pakenhani instantly dispatched Major Sir John 
Tylden to ascertain whether the regiment could be got into position 
in time. Tylden found the forty-fourth just moving off from the 
redoubt, "in a most irregular and unsoldierlike manner, with the 
fascines and ladders. I then returned," adds Tylden in his evidence, 
" after some time, to Sir Edward Pakenhani, and reported the 
circumstance to him; stating, that by the time which had elapsed 
■ since 1 left them they must have arrived- at their situation in 
column." 

This was not half an hour before dawn. Without waiting to 
obtain absolute certainty upon a point so important as the condition 
of the head of his main column of attack, the impetuous Pakenham 
commanded, to use the language of one of his own officers, " that 
thefatal^ ever-fatal rocket should be discharged as a signal to begin 
the assault on the left." A few minutes later a second rocket whiz- 
zed aloft — the signal of attack on the right. 

Daylight struggled through the mist. About six o'clock both 
columns were advancing at the steady, solid, British pace to the at- 
tack ; the forty-fourth nowhere, straggling in the rear with the fas- 
cines and ladders. The column soon came up with the American 
outposts, who at first retreated slowly before it, but soon quickened 
their pace, and ran in, bearing their great news, and putting every 
man in the works intensely on the alert ; each commander anxious 
for the honor of first getting a glimi3se of the foe, and opening fire 
upon him. 

Lieutenant Spotts, of battery number six, was the first man in the 
American lines who descried through the fog the dim red line of 
General Gibbs' advancing column, far away down the plain, close to 
the forest. The thunder of his great gun broke the dread stillness. 
Then there was silence again ; for the shifting fog, or the altered posi- 
tion of the enemy, concealed him from view once more. The fog lift- 
ed again, and soon revealed both divisions, which, with their detached 
comjjanies, seemed to cover two-thirds of the plain, and gave the' 
Americans a repetition of the splendid military spectacle which they 
had witnessed on the 28th of December. Three cheers from Car- 
roll's men. Three cheers from the Kentuckians behind them. 



1815.] THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 259 

• 

Cheers continuous from the advancing column, not heard yet in the 
American lines. 

Steadily and fas^ the column of General Gibbs marched toward 
batteries numbered six, seven, and eight, which played upon it, at 
first with but occasional eftect, often missing, sometimes throwing 
a ball right into its midst, and causing it to reel and pause for a 
moment. Promptly were the gaps filled up ; bravely the column 
came on. As they neared the lines the well-aimed shot made more 
dreadful havoc, " cutting great lanes in the column from front to 
rear," and tossing men and parts of men aloft, or hurling them far 
on one side. At length, still steady and unbroken, they came within 
range of the small arms, the rifles of Carroll's Tennesseeans, the 
muskets of Adair's Kentuckians, four lines of sharp-shooters, one 
behind the other. General Carroll, coolly waiting for the right mo- 
ment, held his fire till the enemy were within two hundred yards, 
and then gave the word — 

" Fire !" 

At first with a certain deliberation, afterward in hottest haste, 
always with deadly eftect, the riflemen plied their terrible weapon. 
The summit of the embankment was a line of spurting fire, except 
where the great guns showed their liquid, belching flash. The noise 
was peculiar, and altogether indescribable; a rolling, bursting, echo- 
ing noise, never to be forgotten by a man that heard it. Along the 
whole line it blazed and rolled ; the British batteries showering 
rockets over the scene ; Patterson's batteries on the other side of 
the river joining in the hellish concert. 

The column of General Gibbs, mowed by the fire of the riflemen, 
still advanced, Gibbs at its head. As they caught sight of the ditch, 
some of the ofiicers cried out, 

"Where are the forty-fourth ? If we get to the ditch, we have no 
means of crossing and scaling the lines !" 

" Here come the forty-fourth ! Here come the forty-fourth !" 
shouted the general ; adding, in an undertone, for his own private 
solace, that if he Uved till to-morrow tie would hang Mullens on the 
highest tree in the cypress wood. 

Reassured, these 'heroic men again pressed on, in the face of that 
murderous, slaughtering fire. But this could not last. With half its 
number fallen, and all its commanding ofiicers disabled except the 
general, its pathway strewed with dead and wounded, and the men 



260 LIFE OF ANDKKW JACKSON. [1815. 

• 

falling ever faster and faster, the column wavered and reeled (so the 
American riflemen thought) like a jed ship on a tempestuous sea. 
At about a hundred yards from the lines the fro^it ranks halted, and 
so threw the column into disorder, Gibbs shouting in the madness 
of vexation for them to re-form and advance. There was no re- 
forming under such a fire. Once checked, the column could not but 
break and retreat in confusion. 

Just as the troops began to falter. General Pakenham rode up 
from his post in the rear toward the head of the column. 

Meeting parties of the forty-fourth running about distracted, 
some carrying fascines, others firing, others in headlong flight, their 
leader nowhere to be seen, Pakenham strove to restore them to 
order^^ and to urge them on the way they were to go. 

" For shame," he cried bitterly, " recollect that you are British 
soldiers. This is the road you ought to take !" pointing to the 
flashing and ro.aring hell in front. 

Riding on, he was soon met by General Gibbs, who said, 

" I am sorry to have to report to you that the troops will not 
obey me. They will not follow me." 

Taking off his hat. General Pakenham spurred his horse to the 
very front of the wavering column, amid a torrent of rifle balls, 
cheering on the troops by voice, by gesture, by example. At that 
moment a ball shattered his right arm, and it fell powerless to his 
side. The next, his horse fell dead i;pon the field. His aid, Cap- 
tain McDougal, dismounted from his black Creole pony, and Paken- 
ham, apparently unconscious of his dangling arm, mounted again, 
and followed the retreating column, still calling upon them to halt 
and re-form. A few gallant spirits ran in toward the lines, threw 
themselves into the ditch, plunged across it, and fell scrambling up 
the sides of the soft and slippery breastwork. 

Once out of the reach of those terrible rifles, the column halted 
and regained its self-possession. Laying aside their heavy knap- 
sacks, the men prepared for a second and more resolute advance. 
They were encouraged, too, by seeing the superb Highlanders 
marching up in solid phalanx to their support with a front of a hun- 
dred men, their bayonets glittering in the sun, which had then be- 
gun to piei-ce the morning mist. Now for an irresistible onset ! 
At a quicker step, with General Gibbs on its right, General Paken- 
ham on the left, the Highlanders in clear and imposing view, the 



1815.]. THE EIGHTH OF JANUAKY. 261 

column again advanced into^ the fire. Oh! the slaughter that then 
ensued ! There was one moment, vrhen that thirty-two pounder, 
loaded to the muzzle with musket balls, poured its charge directly, 
at point-blank range, right into the head of the column, literally 
leveling* it with the plain ; laying low, as was afterward computed, 
two hundred men. The American line, as one of the British offi- 
cers remarked, looked like a row of fiery furnaces ! 

The heroic Pakenham had not far to go to meet his doom. He 
was three hundred yards from the lines when the real nature of his 
enterprise seemed to flash upon him ; and he turned to Sir John 
Tylden and said, 

" Order up the reserve." 

Then, seeing the Highlanders advancing to the support of Gen- 
eral Gibbs, he, still waving his hat, but waving it now with his left 
hand, cried out, 

" Hurrah ! brave Highlanders !" 

At that moment a mass of grape-shot, with a terrible crash, 
struck the group of which he was the central figure. One of the 
shots tore open the general's thigh, killed his horse, and brought 
horse and rider to the ground. Captain McDougal caught the gen- 
eral in his arms, removed him from the fallen horse, and was sup- 
porting him upon the field when a second shot struck the wounded 
man in the groin, depriving him instantly of consciousness. He was 
borne to the rear, and placed in the shade of an old live-oak, which 
still stands ; and there, after gasping a few minutes, yielded up his 
life without a word, happily ignorant of the sad issue of all his plans 
and toils. 

A more painful fate was that of General Gibbs. A few moments 
after Pakenham fell, Gibbs received his death wound, and was car- 
ried ofl" the field writhing in agony, and uttering fierce imprecations. 
He lingered all that day and the succeeding night, dying in torment 
on' the morrow. Nearly at the same moment General Keane was 
painfully wounded in the neck and thigh, and was also borne 
to the rear. Colonel Dale, of the Highlanders, fulfilled his proph- 
ecy, and fell at the head of his regiment. The Highlanders, under 
Major Creagh, wavered not, but advanced steadily, and too slowly, 
into the very tempest of General Carroll's fire, until they were with- 
in one hundred yards of the lines. There, for cause unknown, they 
halted and stood, a huge and glittering target, until five hundred 



262 LIFE OF ANDREW .1 A C K S O N . .[1815. 

and forty-four of their number had f;\jlen, then broke and fled in 
horror and amazement to the rear. The column of General Gibbs 
did not advance after the fall of their leader. Leaving heaps of 
slain behind them, they, too, forsook the bloody held, rushed in 
utter confusion out of the fire, and took refuge at the bottoni of wet 
ditches and behind trees and bushes on the borders of the swamp. 

But not all of them ! Major Wilkinson, followed by Lieutenant 
Lavack and twenty men, pressed on to the ditch, floundered across 
it, climbed the bi'eastwork, and raised his head and shoulders above 
its summit, upon Avhich he fell riddled with balls. The Tennessee- 
ans and Kentuckians defending that part of the lines, struck with 
admiration at such heroic conduct, lifted his still breathing body 
and conveyed it tenderly behind the works. 

" Bear ixp, my dear fellow," said Major Smiley, of the Kentucky 
reserve, "you are too brave a. man to die." 

"I thank you from my heart," whispered the dying man. " It is 
all over with me. You can render me a favor ; it is to communi- 
cate to my commander that I fell on your parapet, and died like a 
soldier and a true Englishnxan." 

Lavack reached the summit of the parapet unharmed, though 
with two shot holes in his cap. He had heard Wilkinson, as they 
were crossing the ditch, cry out, 

" Now, why don't the troops come on ? The day is our OAvn." 

With these last words in his ears, and not looking behind him, 
he had no sooner gained the breastwork than he demanded the 
swords of two American ofiicers, the first he caught sight of in the 
lines. 

" Oh, no," replied one of them, " you are alone, and, therefore, 
ought to consider yourself our jirisoner." 

Then Lavack looked around and saw, what is best described in 
his own language : 

" Now," he would say, as he told the story afterward to his com- 
rades, " conceive my indignation, on looking round, to find that the 
two leading regiments had vanished as if the earth Imd opened 
and swalloioed them up^ 

The earth had swallowed them up, or Avas Avaiting to do so, and 
the brave Lavack was a prisoner. Lieutenant Lavack further de- 
clared, that Avhcn he first looked doAvn behind the American lines 
he saAv the riflemen " flying in a disorderly mob ;" Avhich all other 



1815.] THE EIGHTH OE JANUARY. 26-3 

Avitnesses deny. Doubtless there was some confusion there, as 
every man was fighting his own battle, nnd there was much strug- 
gling to get to the rampart to fire, and from the rampart to load. 
Moreover, if the lines had been surmounted by the foe, a backward 
movement on the part of the defenders would have been in order 
and necessary. 

Thus, then, it fared with the attack on the weakest part of the 
American position. Let us see what success rewarded the enemy's 
efibrts against the strongest. 

Colonel Rennie, when he saw the signal rocket ascend, pressed 
on to the attack with such rapidity that the American outposts 
along the river had to run for it — Rennie' s van-guard close upon 
their heels. Indeed, so mingled seemed pursuers and pursued, that 
Captain Humphrey had to withhold his fire for a few minutes for 
fear of sweepmg down friend and foe. As the last of the Ameri- 
cans leaped down into the isolated redoubt, British soldiers began 
to mount its sides. A brief hand-to-hand conflict ensued within 
the redoubt between the party defending it and the British ad- 
vance. In a surprisingly short time the Americans, overpowered 
by numbers, and astounded at the suddenness of the attack, fled 
across the plank, and climbed over into safety behind the lines. 
Then was poured into the redoubt a deadly and incessant fire, 
which cleared it of the foe in less time than it had taken them to 
capture it ; while Humphrey, with his great guns, mowed down 
the still advancing column ; and Patterson, from the other side of 
the river, added the fire of his powerful batteries. 

Brief was the unequal contest. Colonel Rennie, Captain Henry, 
Major King, three only of this column, reached the summit of the 
rampart near the river's edge. 

" Hurrah, boys !" cried Rennie, already wounded, as the three 
officers gained the breastwork, "Hurrah, t)oys ! the day is ours." 

At that moment Beale's New Orleans sharp-shooters, withdraw- 
ing a few paces for better aim, fired a volley, and the three noble 
soldiers fell headlong into the ditch. 

That was the end of it. Flight, tumultuous flight — some run- 
ning on the top of the levee, some under it, others down the road ; 
while Patterson's guns played upoa them still with terrible effect. 
The three slain officers were brought out of the canal behind the 
lines : when, we are told, a warm discussion arose among the Rifles 



264 LIFE OF ANDRE AV JACK SOX. [J815. 

for the honor of havmg " brought down the colonel." Mr. With- 
ers, a merchant of New Orleans, and the crack shot of the com- 
pany, settled the controversy by remarking, 

" If he isn't hit above the eyebrows, it wasn't my shot." 
Upon examining the lifeless form of Rennie, it was fomid that 
the fatal wound was, indeed, in the forehead. To Withers, there- 
fore, was assigned the duty of sending the watch and other valua- 
bles found upon the person of the fallen hero to his widow, who 
was in the fleet off Lake Borgne. Such acts as these made a last- 
ing impression upon the officers of the British army. When 
Washington Irving was in Paris, in 1822, Colonel Thornton, who 
led the attack on the Avestern bank, referred to the sending 
back of personal property of this kind, in terms of warm commen- 
dation. 

A pleasant story, connected with the advance of Colonel Rennie's 
column, is related by Judge Walkor. " As the detachments along 
the road advanced, their bugler, a boy of fourteen or fifteen, climb- 
ing a small tree within two hundred yards of the American lines, 
straddled a limb, and continued to blow the charge with all his 
power. There he remained during the whole action, whilst the 
cannon balls and bullets plowed the ground around him, killed 
scores of men, and tore even the branches of the tree in which he 
sat. Above the thunder of the artillery, the rattling of fire, the 
musketry, and all the din and uproar of the strife, the shrill blast 
of the little bugler could be heard ; and even when his companions 
had fallen back and retreated from the field, he continued true to 
his duty, and blew the charge with undiminished vigor. At last, 
when the British had entirely abandoned the ground, an American 
soldier, passing from the lines, captured the little bugler and 
brought him into camp, Avhere he was greatly astonished Avhen 
some of the enthusiastic Creoles, who had observed his gallantry, 
actually embraced him, and officers and men vied with each other 
in acts of kindness to so gallant a little soldier." 

The reserve, under General Lambert, was never ordered up. Major 
Tylden obeyed the last order of his general, and General Lambert 
had directed the bugler to sound the advance. A chance shot struck 
the bugler's uplifted arm, and the instrument fell to the ground. 
The charge was never sounded. General Lambert brought for- 
ward his divison far enough to cover the retreat of the broken 



1815.] THE EIGHTH OF J A X U A R Y . 2G5 

columns, and to deter General Jackson from attempting a sortie. 
The chief command had fallen upon Lambert, and he was over- 
whelmed by the unexpected and fearful issue of the battle. 

How long a time, does the reader think, elapsed between the fire 
of the first American gun and the total rout of the attacking col- 
umns? TwENTT-Fivs minutes! ISTot that the American fire 
ceased, or even slackened, at the expiration of that period. The 
riflemen on the left, and the troqps on the right, continued to dis- 
charge their weapons into the smoke that hung over the plain for 
two hours. But in the space of twenty-five minutes the discom- 
fiture of the enemy in the open field was complete. The battery 
alone still made resistance. It required two hours of a tremendous 
cannonade to silence its great guns, and drive its defenders to the 
rear. 

The scene behind the American works during the fire can be 
easily imagined. One-half of the army never fired a shot. The 
battle was fought at the two extremities of the lines. The bat- 
talions of Planche, Dacquin, and Lacoste, the whole of the forty- 
fourth regiment, and one-half of Coffee's Tennesseeans, had nothing 
to do but to stand still at their posts, and chafe with vain impatience 
fo^a chance to join in the fight. The batteries alone at the center 
of the works contributed any thing to the fortunes of the day. Yet, 
no ; that is not quite correct. " The moment the British came into 
view, and their signal rocket pierced the sky with its fiery train, the 
band of the Battalion D'Orleans struck up ' Yankee Doodle ;' and 
thenceforth, throughout the action, it did not cease to discourse all 
the national and military airs in which it had been instructed." 

When the action began, Jackson walked along the left of the 
lines, speaking a few words of good cheer to the men as he passed 
the several corps. 

" Stand to your guns. Don't waste your ammunition. See that 
every shots tells." " Give it to them, boys. Let us finish the 
business to-day." 

Such words as these escaped him now and then ; the men not en- 
gaged cheering him as he went by. As the battle became general 
he took a position on ground slightly elevated, near the center, 
which command^ a view of the scene. There, with mien compos 
ed and mind intensely excited, he watched the progress of the 
strife. When it became evident that the enemy's columns were 
12 



26fi m^E OF ANDi;i:w jack son. [1815. 

iinally broken, Major Hinds, whose dragoons were drawn up in 
the rear, entreated the general for permission to dasli out upon 
them in pursuit. It was a tempting ofter to sueli a man as Jack- 
son. In the intoxication of such a moment, most born figliters 
could not but have said, Have at them, then ! But prudence pre- 
vailed, and the request was refused. 

At eight o'clock, there being no signs of a renewed attack, and 
no enemy in sight, an order was spnt along the lines to cease firing 
with the small arms. The general, surrounded by his staff, then 
walked from end to end of the Avorks, stopping at each battery and 
post, and addressing a few words of congratulation and praise to 
their defenders. It was a proud, glad moment for these men, when, 
panting from their two hours' labor, blackened with smoke and 
sweat, they listened to the general's burning words, and saw the 
light of victory in his countenance. With particular warmth he 
thanked and commended Beale's little band of riflemen, the com- 
panies of the seventh, and Humphrey's artillerymen, who had so 
gallantly beaten back the column of Colonel Rennie. Heartily, 
too, he extolled the wonderfid firing of the divisions of General 
Carroll and General Adair ; not forgetting Coffee, who had dashed 
out upon the black skirmishers in the swamp, and driven them out 
of sight in ten minutes. 

This joyful ceremony over, the artillery, which had continued to 
play upon the British batteries, ceased their fire for the guns to 
cool and the dense smoke to roll off. The whole army crowded to 
the parapet, and looked over into the field. What a scene was 
gradually disclosed to them ! That gorgeous and imposing mil- 
itary array, the two columns of attack, the Highland phalanx, the 
distant reserve, all had vanished like an apparition. Far away down 
the plain, the glass revealed a faint red line still leceding. Near- 
er to the lines " we could see," says Nolte, " the British troops 
concealing themselves behind the shrubbery, or throwing them- 
selves into the ditches and gullies. In some of the latter, indeed, 
they lay so thickly that they were only distinguishable in the dis- 
tance by the white shoulder belts, Avhich formed a line along the 
top of their hiding-place." 

Still nearer, the plain was covered and heapejj with dead and 
wounded, as well as with those who had fallen paralyzed by fear 
alone. " I never had," Jackson would say, " so grand and awful 



1815.] THE EIGHTH OF JANrARY. 267 

an idea of the resurrection as on that day. After the smoke of the 
battle had cleared off somewliat, I saAV in tlie distance more than 
five hundred Britons emerging from tlie heaps of their dead com- 
rades, all over the plain, rising up, and still more distinctly visible 
as the field became clearer, coming forward and surrendering as 
prisoners of war to our soldiers. They had fallen at our first fire 
upon them, without having received so much as a scratch, and lay 
prostrate, as if dead, until the close of the action." 

The American army, to their credit be it re}>eated, were appalled 
and silenced at the scene before them. The writhings of the 
Avounded, their shrieks and groans, their convulsive and sudden 
tossing of limbs, were horrible to see and hear. Seven hundred 
killed, fourteen hundred wounded, five hundred prisoners, were the 
dread result of that twenty-five minutes' work. Jackson's loss, as 
all the world knows, was eight killed and thirteen Avounded. Two 
men were killed at the left of the lines, two in the isolated redoubt, 
four in the swamp pursuing the skirmishers. 

General Jackson had no sooner finished his round of congratula- 
tions, and beheld the completeness of his victory on the eastern 
bank, than he began to cast anxious glances across the river, won- 
dering at the silence of Morgan's lines and Patterson's guns. They 
flashed and spoke, at length. Jackson and Adair, mounting the 
breastwork, saw Thornton's column advancing to the attack, and 
saw Morgan's men open fire upon them vigorously. All is well, 
thought Jackson. 

"Take ofi" your hats and give them three cheers!" shouted the 
general, though Morgan's division was a mile and a half distant. 

The order was obeyed, and the whole army watched the action 
with intense interest, not doubting that the gallant Kentuckians and 
Louisianians, on that side of the river, would soon drive back the 
British column, as they themselves had just driven back those of 
Gibbs and Rennie. These men had become used to seeing British 
columns recoil and vanish before their fire. Not a thought of dis- 
aster on the western bank crossed their elated minds. 

Yet Thornton carried the day on the western bank. Even 
while the men were in the act of cheering, General Jackson saw, 
with mortification and disgust, never forgotten by him Avhile he 
drew breath, the division under General Morgan abandon their 
j)c^itiou and run hi headlong flight toward the city. Clouds of 



268 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1815. 

smoke soon obscured the scene. But the flaslies of the musketry 
advanced tip the river, disclosing to General Adair and his men 
the humiliating fact that their comrades had not rallied, but were' 
still in swift retreat before the foe. In a moment the elation 
of General Jackson's troops was changed to anger and apprehen- 
sion. 

Fearing the worst consequences, and fearing them with reason, 
the general leaped down from the breastwork, and made instant 
preparations for sending over a powei'ful reenforceinent. At all 
hazards the Avestern bank must be i-egained. All is lost if it be 
not. Let but the enemy have free course up the Avestern bank, 
with a mortar and a twelve poundei', and New Orleans will be at 
their mercy in two hours ! Nay, let Commodore Patterson but 
leave one of his guns unspiked, and Jackson's lines, raked by it 
from river to swamp, are untenable ! All this, which was imme- 
diately apparent to the mind of General Jackson, was understood 
also by all of his army who had reflected upon their jiosition. In- 
deed, by ten o'clock in the morning, the Biitish were masters of 
the western bank, although, owing to the want of available artil- 
lery, their triumph, for the moment, was" a fruitless one. On one 
of the guns captured in General Morgan's lines the victors read 
this inscription : " Taken at the surrender of Yorktown, 1781." In 
a tent behind the lines they found the ensign of one of the Louisi- 
ana regiments, which still hangs in Whitehall, London, bearing 
these words : " Taken at the Battle of New Orleans, Jnn. 8th, 1815." 

General Lambert, stunned by the events of the morning, Avas 
morally incapable of improving this important success. And it Avas 
well for him and for his army that he was so. Soldiers there haA'e 
been Avho would have seen in Thornton's triumph the means of turn- 
ing the tide of disaster and snatching A'ictory from the jaAvs of de- 
feat. Biit General Lambert found himself suddenly invested Avith 
the command of an army Avhich, besides haA'ing lost a third of its 
effective force, was almost destitute of field oflicers. The mortality 
among the higher grade of officers had been frightful. Three major- 
generals, eight colonels and lieutenant-colonels, six majors, eighteen 
captains, fifty-four subalterns, Avere among the killed and wounded. 
In such circumstances, Lambert, instead of hurrying OA'er artillery 
and reenforcements, and marching on Ncav Orleans, did a less spiiit- 
ed, but a wiser thing : he sent over an offiber to survey General 



1 S 15.] T H E E 1 G H T H O F J A N U A R Y . - 269 

Morgan's lines, and ascertain how many men would be required to 
hold them. In other words, he sent over an officer to bring him 
back a plausible excuse for abandoning Colonel Thornton's conquest. 
And during the absence of the officer on this errand the British 
gei;eral resolved upon a measure still more pacific. 

General Jackson, meanwhile, was intent upon dispatching his 
reenforcements. It never', for one moment, occurred to his warlike 
mind that the British general would relinquish so vital an advantage 
without a desperate struggle, and, accordingly, he prepared for a 
desperate struggle. Organizing promptly a strong body of trooos, 
he placed it under the command of General Humbert, a refugee 
officer of distinction, who had led the French revolutionary expedi- 
tion into Ireland in 1798, and was then serving in the lines as a vol- 
unteer. Humbert, besides being the only general officer that Jackson 
could spare from his own position, Avas a soldier of high reisute and 
known courage, a martinet in discipline, and a man veroed in the 
arts of European warfare. About eleven o'clock (as I conjecture) 
the reenforcement left the camp, with orders to hasten across the 
river by the ferry at New Orleans, and march down toward the 
enemy, and, after effectinga junction with General Morgan's troops, 
to attack him and drive him from the lines. Before noon, Humbert 
was well on his way. 

Soon after midday, some American troops who were walking 
about the blood-stained field in front of Jackson's position perceived 
a British party of novel aspect approaching. It consisted of an 
officer in full uniform, a trumpeter, and a soldier bearing a white 
flag. Halting at the distance of three hundred yards from the bi-east- 
work, the trumpeter blew a blast upon his bugle, which brought the 
whole army to the edge of the parapet, gazing with eager curiosity 
upon this unexpected but not unwelcome spectacle. Colonel Butler 
and two other officers were immediately dispatclied by General 
Jackson to receive the message thus announced. After an exchange 
of courteous salutations, the British officer handed Colonel Butler a 
letter directed to the American commander-in-chief, which proved 
■ to be a proposal for an armistice of twenty-four hours, that the dead 
might be buried and the wounded removed from the field. The 
letter was signed " Lambert," a deA'ice, as was conjectured, to con- 
ceal from Jackson the death of the British general -in-command. 

The sprinkling of canny Scottish blood that flowed in Jackson's 



270 LIFE OF ANDRiiW JACKSON. [1815. 

veins asserted itself on this occasion. Time was noAV an all-import- 
ant object with him, since Hmubert and his command could not 
yet have crossed the river, and Jackson's whole soul was bent to 
the regaining of the western bank. 

" Lambert ?" thought the generol, " Who is Lambert ? An 
untitled Lambert is not the individual for the commander-in-chief 
of this army to negotiate with." 

Major Butler was ordered to return to the flag of truce,, and to 
say, that Major-General Jackson would be happy to receive any 
communication from the commander-in-chief of the British army ; 
but as to the letter signed " Lambert," Major-General Jackson, not 
knowing the rank and powers of that gentleman, must beg to de- 
cline corresponding with him. 

The flag departed ; but returned in half an hour, with the same 
projDosal, signed, " John Lambei't, commander-in-chief of the Brit- 
ish forces." Jackson's answer was prompt and ingenious. Hum- 
bert, by this time, he thought, if he had not crossed the river, must 
be near crossing, and might, in a diplomatic sense, be considered 
ci'ossed. Jackson, therefore, consented to an armistice on the 
eastern bank ; expressly stipulating that hostilities were not to be 
suspended on the western side of tlie river, and that neither party 
should send over reenforcements until the expiration of the armis- 
tice ! A cunning trick, but not an unfair one, considering the cir- 
cumstances ; and the less unfair as some reenforcements on the 
English side had already gone over the river. 

When this reply reached General Lambert he had not yet re- 
ceived the report from the western bank, and was still, in some de- 
gree, undecided as to the course he should pursue there. With 
the next return of the flag, therefore, came a request from Lambert 
for time to consider General Jackson's reply. To-morrow morning, 
at ten o'clock, he would send a definite answer. The cannonade 
from the lines continued through the afternoon, and the troops 
stood at their posts, not certain that they would not again be at- 
tacked. 

Early in the afternoon the oflicer returned from his inspection of • 
the works on the western bank, and gave it as his o23inion that they 
could not be held with less than two thousand men. General 
Lambert at once sent an order to Colonel Gubbins to abandon the 
works, and to recross the river with his whole command ! ! The 



1815.] THE EIGHTH OF JANUARY. 2V1 

order was not obeyed without difficulty ; for, by this time, the 
Louisianians, urged by a desire to retrieve the fortunes of th.e day 
and their own honor, began to approach the lost redoubts in con- 
siderable bodies. 

With what alacrity Commodore Patterson and General Morgan 
then rushed to their redoubts and batteries ; with what assiduity 
the sailors bored out the spikes of the guns, toiling at the work 
all the next night ; with what zeal the troops labored to strengthen 
the lines ; with what exultant joy Jackson heard the tidings, may 
be left to the reader to imagine. 

The dead in front of Jackson's lines, scattered and heaped upon 
the field, lay all night, gory and stiif, a spectacle of horror to the 
American outposts stationed in their midst. Many of the wounded 
succeeded in crawling or tottering back to their camp. Many more 
were brought in behind the lines and conveyed to New Orleans, 
where tiiey received every humane attention. But, probably, some 
hundreds of poor fellows, hidden in the wood or lying motionless 
in ditches, lingered in unrelieved agony all that day and night, until 
late in the following morning — an eternity of anguish. As soon as 
it was dark, naany uninjured soldiers, who had lain all day in the 
ditches and shrubbery, rejoined their comrades in the rear. 

The news of the gr^at victory electrified the nation, and raise^ 
it from the lowest pitch of despondency. All the large cities were 
illuminated in the evening after the glad tidings reached them. 
Before the rejoicings were over, came news, still more joyful, that 
the commissioners at Ghent had signed a treaty of peace. The war 
Avas at an end. A courier was promptly dispatched from Washing- 
ton to New Orleans, to convey to General Jackson the news of peace. 
Furnished by the postmaster-general with a special order to his 
deputies on the route to facilitate the progress of the messenger by 
all the means in their power, he traveled with every advantage, and 
made great speed. He left Washington on the 15th of February, 
thirty-eight days after the battle. He has a fair mouth's journey 
before him, which he will perform in nineteen days. 



2*72 LIFE or AXDRE-VV JACKSON. [1815. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 

How pleasant it would be to dismiss now tlie conqueror home to 
his Hermitage, to enjoy the ^congratulations of his neighbors and the 
plaudits of a nation whose pride he had so keenly gratified ! But 
this may not be. His work was not done. The next three months 
of his life at New Orleans were crowded with events, many of 
which were delightful, many of which were painful in the extreme. 

The trials of the American army, so far as its- patience was con- 
cerned, began, not ended, with the victory of the 8th of January. 
The rains descended and the floods came upon tlie soft delta of the 
Mississippi, converting both camps into quiigmires. Relieved of 
care, relieved from toil, yet compelled to keep the field by night 
and day, the greater part of the American army had nothing to do 
but endure the inevitable miseries of the situation. Disease began 
its fell work among them ; malignant influenza, fevei's, and, worst 
of all, dysentery. Major Latour computes that during the few 
weeks that elapsed between the 8th of January and the end of the 
campaign, five hundred of Jackson's army died from these com- 
plaints ; a far greater number than had fallen in action. Wliile the 
enemy remained there was no repining. The sick men, yellow and 
gaunt, staggered into the hospitals when they could no longer stand 
to their posts, and lay down to die without a murmur. 

For ten days after the battle the English army remained in their 
encampment, deluged with rain and flood, and played upon at in- 
tervals by the American batteries on both sides of the river. They 
seemed to be totally inactive. They were not so. General Lambert, 
from the day of the great defeat, was resolved to retire to the ship- 
ping. But tliat had now become an afiair of extreme difticulty, as 
an English officer explains. 

" In spite of our losses," he says, " there were not throughout 
the armament a sufficient number of boats to transport above one- 
half of the ai*my at a time. If, however, we should separate, the 
chances were that l)oth parties would be destroyed ; for those em- 
barked might be intercepted, and those left behind would be ob- 



1815.] END OF THE CAMPAIGN. ^ 273 

ligecl to cope Avith the entire American force. Besides, even grant- 
ing that the Americans might be repulsed, it would be impos- 
sible to take to our boats in their presence, and thus at least one 
division, if not both, must be sacrificed. 

" To obviate this difficulty, prudence required that the road which 
'A'e had formed on landing should be continued to the very margin of 
tlie lake ; w^hilst appearances seemed to indicate the total impracti- 
cability of the. scheme. .From firm ground to the water's edge was 
here a distance of many miles, through the very center of a morass 
where human foot had nevei* before trodden. Yet it was desirable 
at least to make the attempt ; for if it failed we should only be re- 
duced to our former alternative of gaining a battle, or surrendering 
at discretion. 

" Having determined to adopt this course, General Lambert im- 
mediately dispatched strong -working parties, under the guidance 
of engineer officers, to lengthen the road, keeping as near as pos- 
sible to the margin of the creek. But the task assigned to them 
was burdened with innumerable difficulties. For the extent of 
several leagues no firm footing could be discovered on which to 
rest the foundation of a path ; nor any trees to assist in forming 
hurdles. All that could be done, therefore, -was to bind together 
large quantities of reeds, and lay them across the quagmire; by 
which means at least the semblance of a road was produced, how- 
ever wanting in firmness and solidity. But where broad ditches 
came in the way, many of which intei'sected the morass, the work- 
men were necessarily obliged to apply more durable materials. 
For these b'ddges, composed in part of large branches, brought 
with immense labor from the woods, were constructed ; but they 
were, on the whole, little superior in point of strength to the rest 
of the path, for though the edges Avere supported by timber, the 
middle was filled up only by reeds." 

It required nine days of incessant and most arduous labor to 
complete the road. The w^ounded were then sent on board, except 
eighty who could not be removed. The abandoned guns were 
spiked and broken. In the evening of the 18th the main body of 
the army commenced its retreat. " Trimming the fires," continues 
the British officer, " and arranging all things in the same order as 
if no change were to take place, regiment after regiment stole away, 
as soon as darkness concealed tlieir motions; leaving the pickets to 
12* 



274 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1815. 

foUow as a rear-guard, but whh strict injunctions not to retire till 
daylight began to appear. As may be supposed, the most profoimd 
silence was maintained; not a man opening his mouth, except to 
issue necessary orders, and even then speaking in a whisper. Not a 
cough or any other noise was to be heard from the head to the rear of 
the column ; and even the steps of the soldiers were planted Avith 
care, to prevent the slightest stamping or echo." 

With an ignominious wallow in the mire, (" the whole army," as 
another narrator remarks, " covered with mud, from the top of the 
head to the sole of the foot,") the Wdlington heroes ended their 
month's exertions in the delta of the Mississippi. They were in 
mortal terror of the crocodiles, it appears, whose domain they had 
intruded upon. "Just before dark," on the night of the retreat, 
says Captain Cooke, " I saw an alligator emerge from the water, and 
penetrate the wilderness of reeds which encircled us on this muddy 
quagmire, as fir as the eye could reach. The very idea of the mon- 
ster prowling about in the stagnant swamp took possession of my 
.mind in a most forcible manner — to look out for the enemy was a 
secondary consideration. The word was. Look out for alligators ! 
Nearly the whole night I stood a few paces from trie entrance of the 
hut, not daring to enter, under the apprehension that an alligator 
might push a broad snout through the reeds and gobble me up. 
The soldiers slept in a lump. At length, being quite worn out from 
want of sleep, I summoned up courage to enter the hut, but often 
started wildly out of my feverish slumbers, involuntarily laying hold 
of my naked sword, and conjuring up every rustling noise among the 
reeds to be one of those disgusting brutes, with a mouth large 
enough to swallow an elephant's leg." 

The retreat was so well managed (General Lambert was knighted 
r.)r it soon after) that the sun was high in the heavens on the 
i')lIowing morning before the American army had any suspicion of 
llie departure of the enemy. And when it began to bL' suspected, 
some further time elapsed before the fact was ascertained. Their camp 
presented the same appearance as it had for many days previous. 
Sentinels seemed to be posted as before, and flags were flying. The 
American general and his aids, from the high window at head- 
quarters, surveyed the position through the glass, and were inclined 
to think that the enemy were only lying low, with a view to draw 
the iroo{)s out of the lines into the open plain. The veteran General 



1816.] END OF THE CAJIPAIGN. 275 

Humbert, a Frenchman, surpassed the acuteness of the backwoods- 
men on this occasion. Being called upon for his opinion, he took 
the glass and spied the deserted camp. 

"They are gone," said he, with the air of a man who is certain 
of his fact. 

" How do you know ?" inquired the general. 

The old soldier replied by directing attention to a crow that was 
flying close to What had been supposed to be one of the enemy's 
sentinels. The proximity of the crow showed that the sentinel was 
a " dummy," and so ill-made, too, that it was not even a good scare- 
crow. The game was now apparent ; yet the general ordered out a 
party to reconnoiter. While it was forming, a British medical 
officer api^roached the lines bearing a letter from General Lambert, 
which announced his departure, and recommended to the humanity 
of the American commander the eighty wounded men who were 
necessarily left behind. There could now be little doubt of the re- 
treat; but Jackson was still wary, and restrained the exultant im- 
petuosity of the men, who were disposed at once to visit the 
abandoned campi- Sending Major Hinds' dragoons to harass the 
retreat of the army, if it had not already gone beyond reach, and 
dispatching his surgeon-general to the wounded soldiers left to his 
care, the general himself, with his stafi', rode to the enemy's camp. 
He saw that, indeed, they had departed, and that his own triumph 
wa'^ comjDlete and irreversible. Fourteen j^ieces of cannon were 
found deserted and spoiled, and much other jn-operty, public and 
private. For one item, three thousand cannon-balls were picked up 
on the field, and piled behind the American ramparts by the Ken- 
tuckian troops. 

The general visited the hospital and assured the wounded officers 
and soldiers of his protection and care, a promise which was promjjtly 
and ?imply fulfilled. "The circumstances of these wounded meu,'' 
says Mr. Walkei", "being made known in the city, a number of 
ladies rode down in their carriages with such articles as were 
deemed essential to the comfort of the unfortunates. One of these 
ladies was a belle of the city, fixmed for her charms of person and 
mind. Seeing her noble philanthropy and devotion to his country- 
men, one of the British surgeons conceived a Avarm regard and al- 
miration, which subsequent acquaintance ripened into love. This 
Burgeon settled in New Orleans after the war, espoused the Creole 



276 LIFE OF ANDliEW JACKSON, [1815. 

lady whose acquaintance he had made under such intei-esting civcum- 
stances, and became an esteemed citizen and the fatlier of a large fam- 
ily." Dr. J. C. Kerr was the hero of this i omantio story. He lived 
until Avithin these few years. A son of his wm that Victor Kerr who 
was executed at Havana Avith General Lopez and Colonel Critten- 
den, in 1851 : his last words, " I die hke a Louisianian and a freeman !" 

Two days after, the. main body of the Araei-icaa troops returned, 
to New Orleans. " The arrival of the army," says Major Latour, 
Avho saw the spectacle, " was a triumph- The non-combatant part 
of the population of New Orleans, that is, the aged, the infirm, the 
matrons, daughters, and children, all went out to meet their de- 
liverers, to receive with felicitations the s.aviors of their country. 
Every countenance was expressive of gratitude — joy spai-Ided in 
every feature on beholding fathers, brothers, husbands, sons, who 
had so recently saved the lives, fortunes, and honor of their fam- 
ilies, by repelling an enemy come to conquer and subjugate the 
country. Nor were the sensations of the brave soldiers less lively 
on seeing themselves about to be coiupensated for all their suf- 
ferings by the enjoyment of domestic felicity. They once more 
embraced the objects of their tenderest affections, were hailed by 
them as their saviors and deliverers, and felt conscious that they 
had deserved the honorable title. How light, liow trifling, how in- 
considerable did their past toils and dangers appear to them at this 
glorious moment ! All was forgotten, all pahiful recollections gave 
way to the most exquisite sensations of inexpressible joy." 

A few days after the return of the army, the general went in 
state to the cathedral. "A temporary arch," continues Major 
Latour, " was erected in the middle of the grand square, opposite 
the princiiial entrance of the cathedral. The different unifor;ned 
companies of Planche's battalion lined both sides of the way, from 
the entrance of the square toward the river to the church. The 
balconies of the windows of the city hall, the parsonage house, and 
all the adjacent buildings, were filled with spectators. The whole 
square, and the streets leading to it, were thronged with people. 
The triumphal arch was supported by six cohunns. Among those 
on the right was a young lady representing Justice, and on the left 
another representing Liberty. Lender the arch Avere two young 
children, each on a pedestal, holding a crown of Jaurel. From the 
arch in the middle of the square to the church, at proper intervals. 



1815.] END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 2Y7 

were ranged young ladies, representing the different states and ter- 
ritories composing the American Union, all dressed^n white, covered 
with transparent veils, and wearing a silver star on their foreheads. 
Each of these young ladies held in her right hand a flag, inscribed 
with the name of the state she represented, and in her left a basket 
trimmed with blue ribbons and full of flowers. Behind each was 
a shield suspended on a lance stuck in the ground, inscribed Avith 
the name of a state or territory. The intervals had been so calcu- 
lated that the shields, linked together with verdant festoons, occu- 
pied the distance from the triumphal arch to the church. 

" General Jackson, accompanied by the ofiicers of liis stafl', arrived 
at the entrance of the square, where he was requested to proceed 
to the church by the walk prepared for him. As lie passed under 
the arch he received the crowns of laurel from the two children, and 
was congratulated in an address spoken by Miss Kerr, who repre- 
sented the State of Louisiana. The general then proceeded to the. 
church, anndst the salutations of the young ladies representing the 
different states, who strewed his passage with flowers. At the 
entrance of the church he was received by the Abbe Dubourg, who 
addressed him in a speech suitable to the occasion, and conducted 
him to a seat prepared for him near the altar. Te Deum was chanted 
with impressive solemnity, and soon after a guard of honor attended 
the general to his quarters, and in the evening the town, Avith its 
suburbs, was splendidly illuminated." 

The day and night were given up to pleasure, both by the soldiers 
and the people. The next day discipline resumed its sway. The 
Tennessee troops were encamped on their old ground above the 
city. New troops kept coming by squads and companies, and the 
boat-load of arms arrived for them. The general addressed himself 
to the task of rendering the country secure against a second surprise, 
in case the enemy should attempt a landing elsewhere. New works 
vrere ordered in exposed localities. New Orleans was saved, but 
the southwest was still the country menaced, and it was not to be 
sui)posed that the British fleet and army, reenforced by a thousand 
new troops, would retire from the coast without an attempt to re- 
trieve the campaign. Not a thought, not the faintest presentiment 
of inunediate peace occurred to any one. The question was, not 
whetlier the enemy would make a new attempt, but whether New 
Orleans or Mobile would be its object. 



2T8 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1815, 

General Jackson, we see, was still a busy and an anxious man. 
He stood, moreover, on the verge of a sea of troubles, unexpected 
and exasperating. Before entering with him into that tempeatu- 
oiis flood, the course of our narrative diverges, for a moment, to 
another scene, a scene without a parallel in the history of the United 
States, which will require the reader's best attention, and excite in 
him various thoughts. 

On the twenty-first of February, 1815, when the Northern States 
were in the first ecstasies of peace, the "scene" just alluded to oc- 
curred. The place was Mobile, then threatened by the British 
fleet, which had taken Fort Bowyer nine days before, and thus had 
Mobile at its mercy. The news of peace, which reached the Brit- 
ish general by a ship direct from England, arrested his career of 
conquest, but was still unknoAvn to tlie Americans on shore. A 
rumor of peace may have reached General Winchester, who com- 
manded at Mobile ; but the arrival of the most certain intelligence 
of it could not then have averted the catastrophe now to be related. 
The fiat of doom had gone forth. On the twenty-second of Janu- 
ary, the day before General Jackson went to the cathedral and 
was crowned with laurel, and spoke his ansv>^er to the Abbe Du- 
bourg, he signed the order which this day was to be carried into 
effect. 

Six coifins were placed in a row, several feet apart, in an open 
place near the' village of Mobile. A large body of troops, perhaps 
fifteen hundred in number, were drawn up so that a view of the 
spectacle was afforded to all. Other on-lookers, a great concourse, 
were assembled, who stood in groups wherever the cofiins could be 
seen. After an interval of waiting, a large country Avagon drove 
up, containing six prisoners bound, escorted by a military guard. 
The wagon was driven into the cei'iter of the troops by the side of 
the coffins, where it stopped, and the men alighted, and each was 
placed next to one of the coffins. One or two of the men were 
visibly agitated ; the rest were firm and composed. Colonel Russell, 
who commanded on this occasion, addressed them in an under tone : 

" You are about to die by the sentence of a court-martial. Die 
like men — like soldiers. You have been brave in the field. You 
have fought well. Do no discredit to your country, or dishonor to 
the army or yourselves by any unmanly fears. Meet your fate with 
courage." 



1815.] EKD OF THE C A J[ i' A I'i X . 279 

One of tlie prisoners, John ILirris by name, a poor illiterate 
Baptist preacber, the father of nine children, several of whom were 
very young, a weak, heavy-laden man, who had enlisted for the 
purpose of accompanying his son to the wars, was still unable to 
control his emotions. He continued to apologize for what he had 
done, and wept bitterly as he spoke. 

Another of the prisoners, Henry Lewis, replied to Colonel Rus- 
Bell's exhortation in these words : 

" Colonel, I have served my country well. I love it dearly, and 
would if I could, serve it longer and better. I have fought bravely 
— you know I have ; and here I have a right to say so myself. I 
would not wish to die in this way" — here his voice faltered, and 
he hastily brushed a tear from his eyes — " I did not expect it. 
But I am now as firm as I have been on the day of battle, and you 
shall, see that I will die as becomes a soldier. You know T am a 
brave man." 

" Yes, Lewis," said the colonel, " you have always behaved like 
a brave man." 

Other words were spoken by the doomed men, whom Colonel 
Russell continued to exhort and console. He soon retired to his 
place, and left the prisoners standing by their coffins, awaiting the 
final preparations. 

The execution proceeded. The prisoners were blindfolded, and 
each man knelt upon his coffin. Thirty-six soldiers were detailed, 
and drawn up before them ; six to fire at each. The signal was 
given, and the bloody deed was done. All the piisoners fell dead 
instantly except Lewis, who, though pierced with four balls, raised 
his head, and, finally, crawled upon his coffin. The officer in com- 
mand approached him. , 

" Colonel," said Lewis, "I am not killed, but I am sadly cut aud 
mangled. Colonel, did I not behave well ?" 

" Yes, Lewis ; like a man," replied Colonel Russell, with falter- 
ing voice. 

" Well, sir," said Lewis, " have I atoned for my oflense ? Shall 
I not live ?" 

The colonel, with cruel kindness, granted the poor fellow's pi-ayer 
so far as to order a surgeon to do all he could to sa\'e his life. But 
the case was past surgery. He lingered four days in extreme agouy, 
and then died. 



280 LIFE OF ANDKEW JACK SOX. [1815. 

Such was the execution of the six militia-men, with whicli, as 
elderly readers remember, the country rang for several years of 
General Jackson's life. Sueh was the result of the mutiny at Fort 
Jackson, on the 19th and 20th of September, 1814. 

To justify such an unexampled slaughter of American citizens, 
the strongest possible proof, both of guilt and of necessity, must 
be adduced. In search of which we resort, first, to the proceed- 
ings of the court-inartial which tried and condemned those men ; 
proceedings publish.ed in full, by order of Congress, in the year 
1828, forming, with the accompanying documents, a ^•olnme of 
considerable magnitude. As usual in such cases of voluminous 
publication by Congress, the essence of the matter can be given in 
a very few words. 

After the termination of the Creek war, and the return home of 
most of the victorious troops, a thousand volunteers were called out 
to garrison the posts and forts in the Creek country. These men 
were called, for six months, and agreed to serve for six months, 
though three months had been the usual term of militia service in 
the western country from time immemorial. The men stationed at 
Fort Jackson, having nothing to do, oppressed with tedium, and 
anxious to rejoin their families, began to inquire whether the 
governor of Tennessee had any lawful authority to call out trooj^s 
for a period longer than three months. In such circumstances men 
are easily convinced, and consequently, at the expiration of three 
months from the day of their enlistment, two hundred of them 
broke tumultuously from the camp, taking with them provisions 
from the public stores, and marched homeward. General Jackson 
ordered them to be pursued, and a considerable number, upon hear- 
ing this intelligence, returned voluntarily to the fort, and gave 
themselves up. The general, upon leaving Mobile for New Or- 
leans, directed that the deserters should be tried by court-martial, 
and the result of the trials forwarded to him. They were tried ac- 
cordingly. Six were sentenced to death, and two hundred to be- 
dismissed in disgrace from the service. General Jackson approved 
the proceedings, and. ordered the capital sentences to be executed 
four days after the receipt of his dispatches. 

Upon a review of the facts and laws of this case, the conclusion 
seems to me irresistible, that, although these men were called out 
for six months, and agreed to st-rve for that terra, yet the governor 



1815.] END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 281 

of Tennessee had no authority to call out men for a longer period 
than three months. The act of Congress of May, 1815, under which 
. these men were summoned to the field, provided that " the militia, 
when called into the service of the United States, by virtue of the 
before-recited act (of 1V95), MAY, if in the opinion of the Presi- 
dent of the ZTnited States the public interest require it, be com- 
pelled to serve for a term not exceeding six months." The old law 
was not repealed. The new act lengthened the term of service 
only in a definite and specified case. Three months was still the 
established term, which could be doubled only by a special act of 
presidential authority. 

Under the act of April, 1814, the six militia-men were executed. 
The question of the legality of their execution, then, resolves itself 
into this : Had the president authorized Governor Blount to apply 
to the corps of which those unfortunate men were members the en- 
largement of the act of 1795? Had the president expressed the 
" opinion," in legal form, that the public interest required them to 
serve six month's ? If he had, the execution was lawful. If he had 
not, the execution was a hideous mistake. I assert, unhesitatingly, 
that in all the mass of documents and dispatches relating to this 
matter, there is not one, nor a sentence of one, which so much as 
justifies an inference that Governor Blount x'eceived in any form the 
requisite authorization. 

In view of these fiicts, the conclusion is that the men were cor- 
rect in their opinion, and that theii' departure from camp was not 
desertion, but a lawful going home after they had done their part 
as citizen soldiers. If this is an erroneous conclusion, the means 
exist in every collection of public documents for the year 1828 of 
refuting it. I should hail its refutation with pleasure, because I am 
sure that General Jackson acted in this affair from an honest and 
perfect conviction of the lawfulness and necessity of what he did. 

The best justification of the conduct of Jackson in this horrible 
business is to be found in the circumstances of the man at the time. 
He knew enough of the character of militia to know that the victo- 
rious host under his command, as soon as the rejoicings at the vic- 
tory were over, would so burn with impatience to go home and re- 
count their exploits to admiring friends, that it would task his pow- 
ers to the uttermost to keep together a competent array. At Mo 
bile, two mouths before, he had formed the determination to carry 



282 LIFE OF ANDREW J A C X S O N . [l815. 

out tlic Sentences of the court-martial, whatever they miglit lie. He 
had had enough of mnthiy. It was no tiiiie, he thought, when, at 
length, the proceedings of tlie court reached him, to show raorcy. 
A great hostile armament still threatened the coasts which he was 
commissioned to defend. Another month and he might again be 
grappling with the foe. If the war had lasted another year, anrl he 
had been compelled ta march his main bodj-^ round. to Mobile, and 
engage in a long and arduous strife with a powerful British army, 
the contest continuing through the heat and pestilence of summer, 
then the stern and terrible example of the execution might have 
been that which alone could nerve his arm to strike an eifectual 
blow. To do justice to General Jackson, we must survey his situa- 
tion as it appeared to his own eyes at the moment. Those v/ho do 
that may still deplore and condemn the error, but they will call it 
by no harsher name. 

To return to New Orleans, where a storm of discontent was brew- 
ing. For- the first three weeks, and after the trium|>hal i-etnrn of the 
army to New Orleans, little occurred to disturb the public harmony. 
Martial law was rigorously maintained, and all the troops were 
kept in service. The duty at the lines and below the hues was 
hard and disagreeable, but, -whatever murmui-s were uttered by the 
troops, the duty was punctually performed. The mortality at the 
hospitals continued to be very great. The business of the city was 
interrupted, in some degree, by the prevalence of martial law, and 
still more by the retention in service of business men. But so long 
as there was no whisper of peace in the city, the restraint was felt 
to be necessary, and was submitted to without audible complain- 
ing. During this interval some pleasant things occurred, which ex- 
hibit the general in a favorable light. 

February the 4th, Edward Livingston, Mr. Shepherd, and Cap- 
tain Maunsel White were sent to the British fleet to arrange for a 
further exchange of prisoners, and for the recovery of a large num- 
ber of slaves, who, after aiding the English army on shore, had 
gone off with them to their ships. They were charged also with 
a less difficult errand. General Keane, when he received his wounds 
on the 8th of January, lost on the field a valuable sword, the gift 
of a friend. He stated the circumstance to General Jackson, and 
requested him to restore the sword. It was an unusual request, 
thought the general, but he complien with it, adding polite wishes 



1815. J EXD OF THE CAMPAIGN. 283 

for General Keane's recovery. CTeneral Keane acknowledged the 
restoration of the sword in courteous terms. 

Mr. Livingston returned to New Orleans with the news of peace 
on the nineteenth of February. The city was thrown into joyful 
excitement, and the troops expected an immediate release from 
their arduous toils. But they were doomed to disappointment. 
The package which Admiral Malcolm had received contained only a 
newspaper announcement of peace. There was little doubt of its truth, 
but the statements of a newspaper are as nothing to the command- 
ers of fleets and armies. To check the rising tide of feeling, Jack- 
son, on the very day of Livingston's return, issued a proclamation, 
stating the exact nature of the intelligence, and exhorting the 
troops to bear with patience the toils of the campaign a little long- 
er. " We must not," said he, " be thrown into false security by 
hopes that may be delusive. It is by holding out such, that an artful 
and insidious enemy too often seeks to accomplish what the utmost 
exertions of his strength will not enable him to effect. To place 
you off your guard and attack you by surprise is the natural expe- 
dient of one who, having experienced the superiority of your arms, 
still hopes to overcome you by stratagem. Though young in the 
' trade' of war, it is not by such artifices that he Avill deceive us." 

This proclamation seems rather to have inflamed than allayed the 
general discontent. Two days after the return of Livingston, a 
paragraph appeared in the Louisiana Gazette^ to the effect that " a 
flag had just arrived from Admiral Cochrane to General Jackson, 
officially announcing the conclusion of peace at Ghent between the 
LTnited States and Great Britain, and virtually requesting a sus- 
pension of arms." For this statement there was not the least foun- 
dation in truth, and its effect at such a crisis was to inflame the 
prevailing excitement. Upon reading the paragraph Jackson 
caused to be prepared an official contradiction, which he sent by an 
aiddecamp to the offending editor, with a written order requiring 
its insertion in the next issue of the paper. 

This was regarded by the rebellious spirits as a new provocation. 
The " muzzled " editor, in the same number of his paper, relieved 
his mind by the following comments upon the general's order : " On 
Tuesday we published a small handbill, containing such information 
as we had conceived correct, respecting the signing of preliminaries 
of peace between the American and Britisli commissioners at Ghent. 



284 T, I F E O F A N D R K \V JACKSON. [1815. 

We have since been infonned from Head-quarters that the informa- 
tion therein contained is incorrect, and we have been ordered to 
publish the following, to do away .the evil tliat might arise from oin- 
imprudence. Every man may read for himself, and think for him- 
self, (thank God ! our thoughts are as yet unshackled !) but as we 
have been officially informed that New Orleans is a camp, our readers 
must not expect us to take the liberty of expressing our opinion as 
we might in a free city. We can not submit to have a censor of the 
press in our office, and as we are ordered not to publish any remarks 
without authority, we shall submit to be silent until we can speak 
with safety — except making our paper a sheet of shreds and patches 
— a mere advertiser for our mercantile friends." 

Pretty loud growling this to come from a muzzled editor. In this 
posture of affiiirs, some of the French ti-oops hit upon an expedient 
to escape the domination of the general. They claimed the protec- 
tion of the French consul, M. Toussard: the consul, nothing loth, 
hoisted the French flag over the cojisulate, and dispensed certificates 
of French citizenship to all applicants. Naturalized Frenchmen 
availed themselves of the same artifice, and, for a few days, Tons, 
sard had his hands full of pleasant and profitable occupation. Jack- 
son met this new difficulty by ordering the consul and all Frenchmen, 
who were not citizens of the United States, to leave New Orleans 
within three days, and not to return to within one hundred and 
twenty miles of the city, until the news of the ratification of the 
treaty of peace was officially published ! The register of votes of 
the last election was resorted to for the purpose of ascertaining who 
were citizens, and who were not. Every man Avho had voted 
was claimed by the general as his " fellow-citizen and soldier," and 
compelled to do duty as such. 

This bold stroke of authority aroused much indignation amojig 
the anti-martial law party, which, on the 3d of March, found voice 
in the public press. A long article apj^eared anonymously in one of the 
newspapers, boldly, but temperately and respectfully calling in ques- 
tion General Jackson's recent conduct, and especially the banishment 
of the French from the city. Here was open defiance. Jackson ac- 
cepted the issue with a promptness all his own. He sent an order to 
the editor of the Louisiana Courier, in which the article appeared, 
commanding his immediate presence at head-quarters. The name 
of the author of the communication was demanded and given. It 



1815.] END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 285 

was Mr. Louaillier, a member of the legislature, a gentleman who 
had distinguished himself by his zeal in the public cause, and who 
had been particularly prominent in promoting subscriptions for the 
relief of the ill-clad soldiers. Upon his surrendering the name the 
editor Avas dismissed. 

At noon on Sunday, the 5th of March, two days after the publi- 
. cation of the article, Mr. Louaillier was walking along the levee, 
opposite one of the most frequented coffee-houses in the city, when- 
a Cai^tain Amelung, commanding a file of soldieis, tapped him on 
the shoulder and informed him that he was a prisoner. Louaillier, 
astonished and indignant, called the bystanders to witness that he 
was conveyed away against his will by armed men. A lawyer, P. 
L. Morel by name, who witnessed the arrest from the steps of the 
-coffee-house, ran to the spot, and was forthwith engaged by Louail- 
lier to act as his legal adviser in this extremity. Louaillier was 
placed in confinement. Morel hastened to the residence of Judge 
Dominick A. Hall, Judge of the District Court of the United 
States, to whom he presented, in his client's name, a petition for a 
writ of habeas corpus. The judge granted the petition, and the 
writ was immediately served upon the general. Jackson instantly 
sent a file of troops to arrest the judge, and, before night. Judge 
Hall and Mr. Louaillier were prisoners in the same apartment of the 
barracks. 

So far from obeying the writ oi habeas corpus, General Jackson 
seized the writ from the oflicer who served it, and retained it in his 
own i^ossession, giving to the officer a certified copy of the same. 
Louaillier was at once placed upon his trial before a court-martial 
upon the following charges, all based upon the article in the Louisi- 
ana Courier: Exciting to mutiny; general misconduct; being a 
spy ; illegal and improper conduct ; disobedience to orders ; writ- 
ing a wilful and corrupt libel against the general ; unsoldierly con- 
duct ; violation of a general order. 

Nor were these the only arrests. A Mr. Hollander, partner in 
business of our friend Nolte, expressed himself somewhat freely in 
conversation respecting Jackson's proceedings, and suddenly found 
himself a prisoner in consequence. " My partner, Mr. Hollander," 
says Nolte, " was at J.he door of the Bank Coffee-House, convers- 
ing about Louaillier's letter, and praising it and its writer's cour- 
age. ' Why,' said he, ' did General Jackson allow Colonel Toussard 



286 L I F K OF A N D R E W J A C K S O N . | ] 8 1 5. 

to print his requisition in' the journals, when lie had no intention to 
free the Frenchmen from military service ?' ' Ah,' replied a by- 
stander, ' his only idea was to find otit all who were disposed to 
side with the consul, in order that he might punish them.' ' It 
was a dirty trick,' said Hollander. This answer was carried to the 
general, Avho immediately ordered the arrest and trial of Hollander, 
because * he excited insubordination and mutiny in the camp, and 
talked disrespectfully of his superior officer.' Just as Hollander and 
I were dining together on the next day, my house was sui-rounded 
by a hundred men, and Major Davezac — so often mentioned — with 
squinting eye and golden epaulettes, stalked in to arrest and carry 
off Hollander. I went at once to Adjutant Livingston to procure the 
liberation of my friend, and he persuaded the general to accept my 
bail for two thousand dollars for the future appearance of Hol- 
lander before the court-martial." 

On Monday, March 6th, the day after the arrest of Louaillier and 
Judge Hall, the courier arrived at New Orleans who had been dis- 
patched from Washington, nineteen days before, to bear to General 
Jackson the news of peace. He had traveled fast, by night and 
day, and most eagerly had his coming been looked for. His packet 
was opened at head-quarters and found to contain no dispatches an- 
nouncing the conclusion of peace ; but an old letter, of no import- 
ance then, which had been written by the secretary of war to 
General Jackson some months before. It appeared that, in the 
hurry of his departure from Washington, the courier had taken the 
wrong packet. The blank astonishment of the general, of his aids, 
of the courier, can be imagined. The only proof the unlucky mes- 
senger could furnish of the genuineness of his mission and the truth 
of his intelligence was an order from the postmaster-genei-al, requir- 
ing his deputies on the route to afford the courier bearing the news 
of peace all the facilities in their power for the rapid performance 
of his journey. In ordinary circumstances this would have sufficed. 
But the events of yesterday had rendered the circumstances extra- 
ordinary. The general resolved still to hold the reins of military 
power firmly in his hands. New Orleans was still a camp, and 
Judge Hall a soldier. 

Jackson wrote, however, to General Lambert on the same day, 
stating precisely what had occurred, and inclosing a copy of the 
postmaster-general's order : " that you may determine," said the 



1816.] END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 287 

general, "whether these occurrences will not justify you in agree- 
ing, by a cessation of all hostilities, to anticipate a happy return of 
peace between our two nations, which the first direct intelligence 
must bring to us in an official form," 

The week had nearly passed away. Judge Hall remained in con- 
finement at the barracks. General Jackson resolved on Saturday, 
the 11th of March, to send the judge out of the city, and set him 
at liberty. Accordingly, on Sunday morning, Captain Peter V. 
Ogden, commanding a troop of dragoons, received from head- 
quarters the following order : 

" Head-quartees Seventh j^Iilitary District, 
New Orleans, March IKh, 1815. 
" Sir : You will detail from your troop a discreet non-commis- 
sioned officer and four men, and dii-ect them to call on the officer 
commanding the Third United States infantry for Dominick A. 
Hall, who is confined in the guard-house for exciting mutiny and 
desertion Avithin the encampment of the city. 

. " Upon receipt of the prisoner, ihe non-commissioned officer will 
conduct him up the coast beyond the lines of General 'Carroll's en- 
campment, and deliver him the inclosed order and set him at liberty. 

" Thomas Butler, 
" Aiddecamp. 
" Captain Peter V. Ogden, 

" Commanding troop of cavalry^ New Orleans!''' 

Inclosed with this laconic epistle was an order from the general 
to Judge Hall: "I have thought proper," said the general, "to 
send you beyond the limits of my encampment, to prevent a repeti- 
tion of the improper conduct with which you have been charged. 
You will remain without the lines of my sentinels until the ratifica- 
tion of peace is regularly announced, or until the British shall have 
left the southern coast. ' 

Captain Ogden promptly obeyed the order. A guard of four 
privates, commanded by a non-commissioned officer, escorted the 
learned judge of the United States District Court to a point about 
five miles above .the city, where General Jackson's oixler was de- 
livered to him, and he was set free. 

Brief was the exile of the banished judge. The very next day, 



288 ^IFK OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [iBlo. 

Monday, March 13th, arrived from Wasliington a courier with a 
dispatch from the government, announcing the ratification of the 
treaty of peace, and inclosing a copy of the treaty and of the ratifi- 
cation. Before that day closed the joyful news was forwarded to 
the British general, hostilities were publicly declared to be at an 
end, martial law was abrogated, and commerce released. " And in 
order," concluded the general's proclamation, " that the general joy 
attending this event may extend to all manner of persons, the com- 
manding general proclaims and orders a pardon for all military 
ofienses heretofore committed in this district, and orders that all 
persons in confinement, under such charges, be immediately dis- 
charged." 

Louaillier was a prisoner no longer. Judge Hall returned to his 
home. On the day following, the impatient militia and volunteers 
of Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Louisiana, were dismissed, 
with a glorious burst of grateful praise. 

I shall not dwell ujjon the subsequent proceedings of Judge Hall. 
March 22d, in the United States District Court, on motion of Attor- 
ney John Dick, it was ruled and ordered by the court that " the 
said Major-General Andrew Jackson show^ cause, on Friday next, 
the 24th March, instant, at ten o'clock, a. m., why an attachment 
should not be awarded against him for contempt of this court, in 
having disrespectfully wrested from tlie clerk aforesaid an original 
order of the honorable the judge of this court, for the issuing of a 
writ of habeas corpus in the case of a certain Louis Louaillier, then 
imprisoned by the said Major-General Andrew Jackson, and for de- 
taining the same ; also for disregarding the said writ of habeas 
corpus^ when issued and served ; in having imprisoned the honorable 
the judge of this court; and for other contempts, as stated by the 
witnesses." 

General Jackson appeared in court, attended by a prodigious 
concourse of excited people. He wore the dress of a private citizen. 
" Undiscovered amidst the crowd," Major Eaton relates, " he had 
nearly reached the bar, when, being perceived, the room instantly 
rang with the shouts of a thousand voices. Raising himself on a 
"bench, and moving his hand to proctire silence, a pause ensued. He 
then addressed himself to the crowd ; told them of the duty due to 
the public authorities ; for that any impropriety of theirs would be 
imputed to him, and urged, if they had any regard for him, that they 



1815.] END OF THE CAMPAIGN. 289 

would, on the present occasion, forbear those feelings and expres- 
sions of opinion. Silence being restored, the judge rose from his 
seat, and remarking that it Avas impossible, nor safe, to transact 
business at such a moment, and under such threatening circumstances 
directed the marshal to adjourn the court. The general immediately 
interfered, and requested that it might not be done. ' There is no 
danger here; there shall be none— the same arm that protected from 
outrage this city, against the invaders of the country, will shield and 
protect this court, or perish in the eifort.' 

" Tranquillity was restored, and the court proceeded to business. 
The district attorney had prepared, and now presented, a file of 
nineteen questions, to be answered by the prisoner. ' Did you not 
arrest Louaillier?' ' Did you not arrest the judge of this court ?' 
' Did you not seize the writ of habeas corpus f ' Did you not say 
a variety of disrespectful things of the judge ?' These nineteen in- 
terrogatories the general utterly refused to answer, to listen to, or to 
receive. He told the court that in a paper previously presented by 
his counsel he had explained fully the reasons that had influenced 
his conduct. That paper had been rejected without a hearing. He 
could add nothing to that paper. 'Under these circumstances,' 
said he, 'I appear before you to receive the sentence of the court, 
having nothing further in my defense to offer.' " 

Whereupon Judge Hall pronounced the judgment of the court. 
It is recorded in the words following : " On this day appeared in 
person Major-General Andrew Jackson, and, being' duly informed 
by the court that an attachment had issued against him for the pur- 
pose of bringing him into court, and the district-attorney having 
filed interrogatories, the court informed General Jackson that they 
would be tendered to him for the purpose of answering thereto. 
The said General Jackson refused to receive them, or to make any 
answer to the said interrogatories. Whereupon the court pro- 
ceeded to pronounce judgment, which was, that Major-General An- 
drew Jackson do pay a fine of one thousand dollars to the United 
States." 

The general was borne from the court-room in triumph. Or, as 
Major Eaton has it, " he was seized and forcibly hurried from the 
hall to the streets, amidst the reiterated cries of iiuzza for Jackson 
from the immense concourse that surrounded him. They presently 
met a carriage in which a lady was riding, when, politely taking 
18 



290 LIFE OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [1815. 

her from it, the general was made, spite of entreaty, to occujdj her 
place ; the horses being removed, the carriage was dra^Yn on and 
halted at the coffee-house, into which he was carried, and thitlier 
the crowd followed, huzzaing for Jackson and menacing violently 
the judge. Having prevailed on them to hear him, he addressed 
them^^vith great feeling and earnestness ; implored them to run into 
no excesses ; that if they had the least gratitude for his services, or 
regard for him personally, they could evince it in no way so satis- 
factorily as by assenting, as he most freely did, to the decision 
which had just been pronounced against him." 

Upon reaching his quarters he sent back an aiddecamp to the 
court-room, with a check on one of the city banks for a thousand 
dollars : and thus the oifended majesty of the law was supposed to 
be avenged. 

It is not to be inferred from the conduct of the people in the 
court-room, that the course of General Jackson," in maintaining mar- 
tial law so long after the conclusion of peace was morally certain, 
was generally approved by the people of New Orleans. It was not. 
It was approved by many, forgiven by most, resented by a few. An 
effort was made to raise the amount of the general's fine iBy a pub- 
lic subscription, to which no one w^as allowed to contribute more 
than one dollar. But Nolte tells us (how truly I know not) that, 
after raising with difficulty one hundred and sixty dollars, the 
scheme was quietly given up. He adds, that the court-room on the 
day of the general's appearance was occupied chiefly by the special 
partisans of the general. 

On the 6th of April, General Jackson and his family left New Or- 
leans on their return to Tennessee. On approaching Nashville the 
general was met by a procession of troops, students, and citizens, 
who deputed one of their number to Avelcome him in an address. 
At Nashville a vast concourse was assembled, among whom were 
many of the troops who had served, under him at New Orleans. 
The greatest enthusiasm prevailed. Within the court-house Mr. 
Felix Grundy received the general with an eloquent speech, re- 
counting in glowing periods the leading events pf the last cam- 
paigns. The students of Cumberland College also addressed the 
general. The replies of General Jackson to these various addresses 
were short, simple, and sufficient. 

And 'so we dismiss the hero home to his beloved Herraitacre. 



1815.] BEST AND GLORY. 291 

there to recruit his impaired energies by a brief period of repose. 
He had been absent for the space of tAventy-one months, with the 
exception of three weeks between the end of the Creek war and the 
beginning of the campaign of 'New Orleans. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

REST AND GLORY. 

Four months' rest at the Hermitage. In the cool days of Octo- 
ber we find the general on horseback once more, riding slowly 
through Tennessee, across Virginia, toward the city of Washing- 
ton — the whole journey a triumphal progress. At Lynchburgh, in 
Virginia, the people turned out en tnasse to greet the conqueror. 
A number of gentlemen rode out of town to meet him, one of whom 
saluted the general with an address, to which he briefly replied. 
Escorted into the town on the 7th of November, he was received 
by a prodigious assemblage of citizens and all the militia companies 
of the vicinity, who welcomed him with an enthusiasm that can be 
imagined. In the afternoon a grand banquet, attended by three 
hundred persons, was served in honor of the general. Among the 
distinguished guests was Thomas Jefferson, then seventy-two years 
of age, the most revered of American citizens then living. His resi- 
dence was only a long day's ride from Lynchburgh, and he had 
come to join in the festivities of this occasion. The toast offered 
by the ex-president at the banquet at Lynchburgh has been vari- 
ously reported, but in the newspapers of the day it is uniformly 
given in these woi'ds : " Honor and gratitude to those who have 
filled the measure of their country's honor." General Jackson vol- 
unteered a toast, which was at once graceful and significant : " James 
Monroe, late Secretary of War ;" graceful, because Mr. Monroe was 
a Virginian, a friend of Mr. Jefferson, and had nobly co-operated 
with himself in the defense of New^ Orleans ; significant, because 
Mr. Monroe was a very prominent candidate for the presidency, and 
the election was drawing near. 

To liorse again the next morning. Nine days' riding brought the 



292 LIFE OV A^'DREW JACKSON". [1815. 

general to Washington, v*hich he reached in the evening of Novem- 
ber 17th. He called the next morning upon the president and the 
members of the cabinet, by whom he was welcomed to the capital 
with every mark of cordiahty and respect. His stay at Washing- 
ton, I need not say, was an almost ceaseless round of festivity. A 
great public dinner was given him, which was attended by all that 
Washington could boast of the eminent and the eloquent. He was 
lionized severely at 2->rivate entertainments, where the stateUness of 
his bearing and the suavity of his manners pleased the gentlemen 
and won the ladies. And this was to be one of the conditions of 
his lot thenceforward to the end of his life. He was the darling of 
the nation. Nothing had yet occurred to dim the luster of his fame. 
His giant popularity was in the flush of its youth. He could go no- 
where Avithout incurring an ovation, and every movement of his was 
aifectionately chronicled in the newspapers. It was said, in after 
times, that the popularity of General Jackson could " stand any 
thing." The question that we shall have to do with is this : " Could 
General Jackson stand his popularity ?" 

While he was enjoying the festivities of Washington, came 
rumors from the far southAvest that must have had a peculiar interest 
for the conqueror of the Creeks. It was said that the commission- 
ers appointed to fix the boundaries of that tribe, in accordance with 
the treaty of Fort Jackson, had met with formidable oj^position ; 
that the chiefs Avould not give up their land ; that Fort Jackson had 
been burned and- its sick garrison massacred ; and that all the south- 
western tribes were restless and preparing to rise. A few days 
later these rumors were found to be nearly destitute of foundation, 
but not quite. The Creek chiefs deplored the loss of their beloved 
hunting grounds ; but, except the unsubdued Seminoles of Florida, 
all acquiesced in the conditions of the treaty, hard though they 
seemed. The portion of the tribe that had taken refuge in Florida 
protested against the cession of their country — protested to the 
Spanish governor — protested to English Woodbine, Nichols, and 
Arbuthnot, and, through them, to the Prince Regent of England 
— sent chiefs and prophets to England to protest — will continually 
protest for the next three years. It is to ba hoped, for their own 
sakes, that they will content themselves with protesting. 

For General Jackson is to remain in the army ! Upon the con- 
clusion of peace with Gi'eat Britain, the army was reduced to ten 



1816.] REST AIS^D GLOKY. 293 

thousand men, commanded by two major-generals, one of whom 
"was to reside at the north and command the troops stationed there, 
and the other to bear military sway at the south. The generals 
selected for these commands were General Ja'job Brown for the 
northern division, and General Andrew Jackson for the sonthern ; 
both of whom had entered the service at the beginning of the late 
war as generals of militia. General Jackson's visit to Washington 
on this occasion was in obedience to an order, couched, in the lan- 
guage of an invitation, received from the secretary of war soon 
after his return from New Orleans ; the object of his visit being to 
arrange the posts and stations of the army. Tlie feeling was gen- 
eral at the time, that the disasters of the war of 1812 were chiefly 
due to the defenceless and unprepared condition of the country, 
and that it was the first duty of the government, on the return of 
peace, to see to it that the assailable points Avere fortified. "Let us 
never be caught napping again ;" " in time of peace prepare for 
war," were popular sayings then. On these, and all other subjects 
connected with the defense of the country, the advice of General 
Jackson was asked and given. His own duty, it was evident, was, 
first of all, to pacify, and if possible satisfy, the restless and sorrow- 
ful Indians in the southwest. The vanquished tribe, it was agreed, 
should be dealt with forbearingly and liberally. The general 
undertook to go in person into the Indian country, and endeavor to 
remove from their miilds all discontent. 

It was not until tlie middle of October, 1810, that he had com- 
pleted this important business, and reached once more the vicinity 
of his liome. It was considered in Tennessee that he had rendered 
a most signal service to the state in opening the Indian lands to 
the advancing tide of emigration, and in quieting the minds of those 
still powerful tribes. " This great and glorious termination," said a 
Nashville paper of the time, " of a business that hung over this sec- 
tion of the Union like a portentous cloud, deserves to be commem- 
orated ; and we hope that suitable arrangements will be made, by 
the citizens of Tennessee, to receivethe general on hi:i return with 
that eclat he so richly merits, and that no time will be lost in re- 
turning thanks to the officers of the general government, for their 
prompt attention to the expressed Avishes of the citizens of Tennes- 
see." 

And so arose the saying in Tennessee in these years, that as 



294 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSOJJf. [1816. 

often as General Jackson left his home he never returned to it with- 
out having, during his absence, performed some great service for 
the Union or for Tennessee. 

It is not possible to overstate his popularity in his own state. 
He Avas its pride, boast, and glory. Teuuesseans felt a personal 
interest in his honor and success. His old enemies either sought 
reconcihation Avith him or kept their enmity to themselves. His 
rank in the army, too, gave him unequaled social eminence, and, to 
add to the other felicities of his lot, his fortune now rapidly in- 
creased, as the entire income of his estate could be added to his 
capital; the pay of a major-general being sufficient for the support 
of his family. He was forty-nine years old in 1816. He had riches, 
rank, power, renown, and all in full measure. Our young friend 
*' Andy" of a previous page has prospered in the world. 

About this time it was that a change came over the spirit of the 
wild and warlike West. The few pioneer preachers of an earlier day 
had contended, with the best light given them, with a zeal and 
devotion perhaps unparalleled in the history of Christianity, against 
the thousand barbarizing and soul-darkening influences of frontier 
life. With rude but earnest speech they had gone from settlement 
to settlement, from camp-meeting to camp-meeting, proclaiming that 
man is a soul, and that his weal or his woe, in this world and all 
worlds, is spiritual. It is not necessary to sympathize with their pe- 
culiar mode of stating these immortal truths. In order to admit that 
they proclaimed them in the only language that had then and 
there a chance of being understood and received. They assisted to 
save civilization. 

Among those who joined the church about this time was Mrs. 
Jackson. " Parson Blackburn," as she styled hun in her letters, 
the Rev. Gideon Blackburn, to whom the general had written in 
the black days of the Creek war, imploring the aid of his eloquence 
in raising anew army, Avas the preacher Avhoni she ever fondly owned 
as her " spiritual father." The general, as she mentions in her corres- 
pondence, sympathized with her in her new resolves, and strength- 
ened them by all the means in his power ; himself, to her sorrow, liold- 
ing aloof. For her gratification he built soon afterward a little 
brick church on the Hermitage farm, Avhich was incorporated into the 
presbytery, and supplied by it with a minister. This edifice, I sup- 
pose, is the smallest church in the United States, and the one of 



1817.] THE SEMINOLE WAR. 295 

simplest construction. It looks like a New England school-liouse ; 
no steeple, no portico, no entry or inside door. The interior, which 
contains forty pews, is unpainted, and the floor is of brick. It is not 
now used foi' any purpose, and looks forgotten and desolate in the 
grove where it stands, a quarter of a mile from the mansion. This 
little church, so simple and rude, was all to Mrs. Jackson that a 
cathedral of sublimest proportions could have been. It was the 
home of her soul. When away from Tennessee with the general, 
as she often was, it was for this little house 'of brick and unpainted 
wood that she longed. When at home the general was punctual 
in his attendance at the church, and the time came, but not for many 
years yet, when he stood leaning on his walking-stick, before its 
low, brown pulpit, trembling and penitent. 



CHAPTER xxym. 

THE SEMINOLE WAR. 

In 1817 there was trouble again among the Indians — the Indians 
of Florida, the alUes of Great Britain during the war of 1812, com- 
monly knowm by the name of Seminoles. Composed in part of 
fugitive Creeks, who scouted the treaty of Fort Jackson, they had 
indulged the expectation that, on the conclusion of peace, they 
would be restored by their powerful ally to the lands wrested from 
the Creeks by Jackson's conquering arm in 1814. 

This poor remnant of tribes once so numerous and powerful had 
not a thought, at first, of attempting to regain the lost lands by 
force of arms. The best testimony now procurable confirms their 
own solemnly reiterated assertions, that they long desired and en- 
deavored to live in peace with the white settlers of Georgia. All 
their "talks," petitions, remonstrances, letters, of which a large 
number are still accessible, breathe only the wish for peace and fair 
dealing. The Seminoles were drawn at last into a collision with 
the United States by a chain of circumstances with which they 
had little to do, and the responsibility of which belongs not to 
them. 



296 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1817. 

November, 1817. Alarm pervades the frontiers of Georgia. 
The Seminoles are sullen and savage. During the autumn there 
have been outrages and murders. White men have killed and 
plundered Indians ; Indians have killed and plundered white men. 
United States troops occupy Fort Scott and other posts near the 
junction of the Chattahoochie and Flint. A body of Georgia 
militia are in the field, called out to assist in expelling fillibusters 
from Amelia Island. Boat loads of provisions and munitions are 
ascending the Appalachicola. There is a bustle of warhke prepa- 
ration all along the rivers and the line that divides Florida and 
Georgia. There are Seminole villages on both sides of that Ime, 
some of which are friendly to the whites, others hostile. 

But as late as the middle of November, despite the irritation, 
the resentments, the alarms, no act of war has been done on either 
side. The outrages have been the work of individuals and small 
parties. As between the United States and the Seminoles there is 
peace. 

General Edmund P. Gaines commands in this quarter. During 
the year he has been " talking" with the sullen chiefs, assuming in 
his talks that the Indians were wholly in fault. This Avas one of his 
talks : 

" Your Seminoles are very bad people. I don't say whom. You 
have murdered many of my people, and stolen my cattle and many 
good horses that cost me money ; and many good houses that cost 
me money you have burned for me ; and now that you see my writ- 
ing, you Avill think that I have spoken right. I know it is so, you 
know it is so ; for now you may say I will go upon you at random. 
But just give me the murderers, and I will show them my law ; and 
when that is finished and past, if you will come about any of my 
people, you will see your friends, and if you see me you will see 
your friend. But there is something out in the sea, a bird with a 
forked tongue ; whip him back before he lands, for he Avill be the 
ruin of you. Yet perhaps you do not know who or what I mean 
— I mean the name of Englishman. I tell /ou this, that if you do 
not give me up the murderers who have murdered my people, I say 
I have got good strong warriors with scalping knives and toma- 
hawks. You harbor a> great many of my black people among you, 
at Sahwahnee. If you give me leave to go by you against them,- 
I shall not hurt any thing belonging to you." 



1817.] THE SEMINOLE WAK. 297 

To which the cliief, "King Hatchy," haughtily rephcd : "You 
charge me with kilhng your people, stealing your cattle, and burn- 
ing your houses. It is I that have cause to complain of the Amer- 
icans. While one American has been justly killed, while in the act 
of stealing cattle, more than four Indians have been murdered, while 
hunting, by these lawless freebooters. I harbor no negroes. When 
the Eiiglishmen were at war with America, some took shelter among 
them, and it is for you white people to settle those things among 
yourselves, and not trouble us with what we know nothing about. 
I shall use force to stop any armed Americans from passing my 
towns or my lands." 

Such was the humor of the two races in the autumn of 1817. 

Fourteen miles east of Fort Scott, in Georgia, but near the Flor- 
ida line, on lands claimed by the United States under the treaty of 
Fort Jackson, was a Seminole village, called by the settlers Fowl- 
town. The chief of this village of forty-five warriors was sup- 
posed to be, and was, peculiarly embittered against the whites. 
The red war-]3ole had been erected by his, warriors, around which 
they danced the war-dance. The Fowltown chief was resolved to 
hold his lands, and resist by force any further encroachments, and 
had said as much to Colonel Twiggs, the commandant of Fort 
Scott. " I warn you," he said to Colonel Twiggs, early in Novem- 
ber, " not to cross, nor cut a stick of wood on the east side of the 
Flint. That land is mine. I am directed by the powers above and 
the powers below to protect and defend it. I shall do so." A few 
days after. General Gaines arrived at Fort Scott with a reenforce- 
ment of regular troops, when the talk of the Fowltown chief was 
reported to him. General Gaines, "to ascertain," as he said, 
" Avhether his hostile temper had abated," had previously sent a 
runner to the chief to request him to come to him at Fort Scott. 
The chief replied, "I have already said to the officer commanding 
at the fort all I have to say. I will not go." 

General Gaines immediately detnched a force of two hundred and 
fifty men, under command of Colonel Twiggs, with orders " to bring 
to me the chirf and his warriors, and, in the event of resistance, to 
treat them as enemies." . 

On the morning of Kovember 21st, before the dawn of day, the 
detachment reached Fowltown. The warriors fired upon the troops 
without waiting to learn their errand. It could not be expected to 
13* 



298 LIFE OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [1817. 

occur to tlie benighted Seminole mind that a large body of troops, 
arriving near their town in the darkness of a November morning, 
could have any but a hostile errand. The fire of the Indians, Avhich 
was wholly without effect, was " briskly returned " by the troops, 
when the Indians took to flight, with the loss of two men killed and 
one woman, beside several wounded. Colonel Twiggs entered and. 
searched the abandoned town. Among other articles found in the 
house of the chief were a scarlet coat of the British uniform, a pair 
of golden epaulets, and a certificate, in the handwriting of Colonel 
Nichols, declaring that the Fowltown chief had ever been a true 
and faithful friend of the British. Colonel Twiggs took post near 
the town, erected a temporary stockade, and Avaited for further 
orders. Shortly afterward the town was burnt by General Gaines 
himself 

The die was cast. The revenge of the Seminoles for this seizure 
of Fowltown, and the slaughter oT its warriors and the woman, was 
swift, bloody, and atrocious. 

Nine days after, a large open boat, contaming forty United States 
troops, seven soldiers' waves and four little cliildren, undei- command 
of Lieutenant Scott, of the 7th infontiy, was warping slowly up the 
Appalachicola river. They were within one mile of reaching the 
junction of the Chattahoochie and Flint, and not many miles from 
Fort Scott. To avoid the swift current, the soldiers kept the boat 
close to the shore. They -were passing a SAvamj^, densely covered 
with trees and cane. Suddenly, at a moment when not a soul on 
• board suspected danger, for not an Indian, nor trace of an Indian 
had been seen, a heavy volley of musketry, from the thickets within 
a few yards of the boat, was fired full into the closely-compacted 
party. Lieutenant Scott and nearly every man in the boat were 
killed or badly wounded at the fii'st fire. Other volleys succeeded. 
The Indians soon rose from their ambush and rushed upon the boot 
with a fearful yell. Men, M' omen, and children were involved in one 
horrible massacre, or spared for more horrible torture. The children 
were taken by the heels and their brains dashed out against the sides 
of the bd^t. The men and women were scalped, all but one woman, 
Avho was not wounded by the previovis fire. Four men escaped by 
leaping overboard and swimming to the opposite shore, of whom 
two only reached Fort Scott uninjured. Laden with plunder, the 
savages reentered the wilderness, taking with them the woman whom 



1818. J THE SEMINOLE WAR. 299 

'they had spared. In twenty minutes after the first volley -was fired 
into the boat, every creature in it but five was killed and scalped, 
or bound and carried off. 

The Seminoles had tasted blood, and thirsted like tigers for more. 
Still haunting the banks of the river, they attacked, a few days later, 
a convoy of ascending boats, under Major Muhlenburgh, killing two 
soldiei's and wounding thirteen. For four or five days and nights 
the boats lay in the middle of the stream, immovable ; for not a 
man could show himself for an instant above the bulwarks without 
being fired upon. With difficulty, and after great suffering on the 
part of the sick and wounded, the fleet was rescued from its horri- 
ble situation by a party from Foct Scott. 

Before the year closed Foit Scott itself was threatened. A de- 
sultory and ineffectual fire was kept up upon it for several days. 
The garrison, being short of provisions, and forming a most exag- 
gerated estimate of the numbers of the enemy, feared to be obliged 
to abandon the post. This was war indeed. The government at 
Washington was promptly informed of these terrible events by 
General Gaines, who advised the most vigorous measures of retali- 
ation. It chanced that just before these dispatches reached Wash- 
ington, the secretary of war, Mr. J. C. Calhoun, not anticipating 
serious trouble from the Indians, had sent orders to General Gaines 
to proceed to Amelia Island. General Gaines Avas accordingly com- 
pelled to leave the frontiers at a time when his presence there was 
most needed. The government, fearing the effect at such a moment 
of the absence of a general ofiicer from the scene of hostilities, re- 
solved upon orderin^'Gffeneral Jackson to take command in person 
of. the troops upofi the fro]|tiers of Georgia. 

Late in the evening of January 11th, the express, bearing the 
orders of Mr. CalhojiB to General Jackson, after a ride of fifteen 
days, reached the Hermitage. Before he slept that night the gen- 
eral had concluded upon his plan of operations. His plan was that 
of a man untrammeled by red tape and unacquainted with the :\vt of 
" How not to do it." There are now in the field, Mr. Calhou unsaid, 
eight hundred regular troops and a thousand Georgia militia. If 
you think these forces insufficient, call on " the executives of the 
adjacent states for such additional militia as you may deem requi- 
site." Adjacent! Adjacent to what? There was but one state 
adjacent to Florida, Georgia, namely, and the raiUtia of Georgia 



800 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1818. 

were already in the field. Alabama was not yet a state. It did not 
cost General Jackson any computable period of time to decide that 
the " additional militia of the adjacent states" meant a thousand 
mounted volunteers from West Tennessee and Kentucky, the men 
with whom he had fought the Creeks and the British in the last 
war. But he was to call upon the "executives of the adjacent 
states." The governor of Tennessee, as it chanced, was absent 
from Nashville on a tour of the Cherokee country near Knoxville, 
and it was not known either where he was or when he would return. 

General Jackson took the responsibility. He sent privately to a 
number of his old volunteer officers, and requested them to meet 
him at Nashville. They assembled at the time appointed. They 
embraced his scheme without a dissentient voice, and separated to 
carry it into effect. The general issued one of his spirit-stirring 
addresses, and the yeomen of West Tennessee were eager to mount 
and follow him to the end of the world. On the last day of Janu- 
ary, twenty days after the general had received Mr. Calhoun's dis- 
patch, and twelve days after the meeting of the officers at Nashville, 
two regiments of mounted men, numbeiing more than a thousand, 
assembled at the old rendezvous of Fayetteville, Tennessee, ready 
to march. One hundred of these went from Nashville alone. 
Twenty days' rations were ordered to be distributed to this force. 
They were placed under the command of Inspector-General Hayne, 
who was directed to march them with all dispatch to Fort Jackson, 
whence, with a fresh supply of provisions, they were to be led to 
Fort Scott. General Jackson himself would proceed to Fort Scott 
at an earlier date by a directer route, and" at greater speed, accom- 
panied only by two companies as a " gua||d." FAm Fort Scott t^W 
combined forces of Tennessee and Georgia, with the regular troops^ 
would sweep down into Florida, and, unless-4i^ Spaniards behaved 
unexpectedly well, overrun that province and hold it for the United 
States. 

On the twenty^second of January, General Jackson and his 
" guard " left Nashville amid the cheers of the entire population. 
The distance from Nashville to Fort Scott is about four hundred 
and fifty miles. In the evening of March 9th, forty-six days after 
leaving Nashville, he reached Fort Scott with eleven hundred hr.u- 
gry men. No tidings yet of the Tennessee troops under Colonel 
Hayne ! There was no time to spend, however, in waiting or surmis- 



1818. ]_ TUE SEMINOLE WAE. 301 

ing. The general found himself at Fort Scott in command of two 
thousand men, and his whole stock of provisions one quart of corn 
and three rations of meat per man. There was no supply in his 
rear, for he had swept the country on his line of march of every 
bushel of corn and every animal fit for food. He had his choice of 
two courses only — to remain at Fort Scott and starve, or to go for- 
ward and find provisions. It is not necessary to say which of these 
alternatives Andrew Jackson selected. " Accordingly," he wrote, 
" having been advised by Colonel Gibson, Quartermaster-General, 
that he would sail from New Orleans on the 12th of February, with 
supplies ; and being also advised that two sloops with provisions- 
were in the bay, and an officer had been dispatched from Fort 
Scott in a large keel boat to bring up a part of their loading, and 
deeming that the preservation of these supplies would be to pre- 
serve the army, and enable me to prosecute the campaign, I as- 
sumed the command on the morning of the 10th, ordered the live- 
stock to be slauglitered and issued to the troops, with one quart of 
corn to each man, and the line of march to be taken up at twelve 
meridian." 

It was necessary to cross the swollen river ; an operation which 
consumed all the afternoon, all the dark night succeeding, and a 
part of the next morning. Five days' march along the banks of 
the Appalachicola — past the scene of the massacre of Lieutenant 
Scott — brought the army to the site of the old Negro Fort on Pros- 
pect Bluff. On the way, however, the army, to its great joy, met 
the ascending boat load of flour, when the men had their first full 
meal since leaving Fort Early, three weeks before. Upon the site 
of the Negro Fort, General Jackson ordered his aid, Lieutenant 
Gadsden, of ^e engin^-?, to construct a fortification, which was 
promptly done, and named by the general. Fort Gadsden, in honor, 
as he said, of the " talents and indefatigable zeal " of the builder. 
No news yet of the great flotilla of provisions from New Orleans. 
" Consequently," wrote the general, " I put the troops on half ra- 
tions, and pushed the completion of the fort for the protection of 
the provisions, in the event of their arrival, intending to march 
forthwith to the heart of the enemy and endeavor to subsist upon 
him. In the mean time I dispatched Major Fanning of the corps 
of artillery, to take another look into the bay, whose return on the 
morning of the 23d brought the information that Colonel Gibson, 



802 LIE'E OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1818. 

with one gun-boat and three transports and others in sight, were in 
the bay. On the same night I received other information that no 
more had arrived. I am therefore apj^rehensive that some of the 
smaller vessels have been lost, as one gun-boat went to pieces, and 
another, when last spoken, had one foot of water in her." 

The Tennessee volunteers did not arrive, but had been heard 
from. "The idea of starvation," wrote General Jackson, "has 
stalked abroad. A jjanic appears to have spread itself every- 
where." Colonel Hayne had heard that the garrison of Fort Scott 
were starving, and had passed into Georgia for supplies, despite 
the willingness of the men, " to risk the worst of consequences on 
what they had to join me," General Gaines, however, joined the 
army at Fort Gadsden, though in sorry pliglit. " In his passage 
down the Flint," explains Jackson, " he was shipwrecked, by which 
he lost his assistant adjutant-general. Major C. Wright, and two 
soldiers drowned. The general reached me six days after, nearly 
exhausted by hunger and cold, having lost his baggage and cloth- 
ing, and being compelled to wander in the woods four days and a 
half without any thing to subsist on, or any clothing except a pair 
of pantaloons. I am happy to have it in my power to say that he 
is now with me, at the head of his brigade, in good health." 

Nine days passed, and still the general was at Fort Gadsden 
waiting for the great flotilla. It occurred to him that possibly the 
governor of Pensacola might have opposed its ascent of the river 
or molested it in the bay. He wrote a very polite but a very plain 
letter to the governor on the 25th of March. " I wish it to be dis- 
tinctly understood," he observed, " that any attempt to interrupt 
the passage of transports cannot be viewed in any other light than 
as a hostile act on your part. I will not pefrait myself for a moment 
to belicA'^e that you would commit an act so contrary to the interests 
of the king your master. His Catholic Majesty, as well as the gov- 
ernment of the United States, are alike interested in chastising a 
savage foe who have too long Avarred with impunity against his sub- 
jects, as well as the citizens of this republic, and I feel persuaded 
that every aid which you can give to promote this object will be 
cheerfully tendered." 

The governor in due time replied that he would permit the trans- 
ports to pass this time, on condition of their paying the usual 
duties, but never again. " If extraordinary circumstances," he con- 



1818.]. THE SEMINOLE WAK. 303 

eluded, " should require any further temporary concessions, not 
e?-:plained in the treaty, I request your excellency to have the good- 
ness to appl}' in future, for the obtaining of them, to the proper 
authority, as I, for my part, possess no power whatever in relation 
thereto." 

Before the day closed on which he wrote his plain letter to the 
governor of Pensacola, he had the })Icasure of hearing that the 
provision flotilla had arrived, and of welcoming to Fort Gad-sden its 
commanding officers, Colonel Gibson of the army, and Captain Mc- 
Keever of the navy. He was writing a dispatch at the time to the 
secretary of war, which he hastened to ctese with this most 
gratifying intelligence : " I shall move to-morrow," he said, " having 
made the necessary arrangements with Captain McKeever for his 
cooperation in transporting my supplies around to the bay of St. 
Marks, from which place I shall do myself the honor of communi- 
cating with you. Should our enemy attempt to escape with his 
supplies and booty to the small islands, and from thence to carry on 
a predatory warfare, the assistance of the navy Avill prevent his 
escaj^e." 

General Jackson on the following day was in full march toward 
St. Marks. He left Fort Gadsden on the 26th of March, was joined 
by one regiment of Tennesseeans on the 1st of April, and on the 
same day had a brush with the enemy. A "number" of Indians, 
we are told in the ofiicial report, Avere discovered engaged in the 
peaceful employment of " herding cattle." An attack upon these 
dusky herdsmen was instantly ordered. One American killed and 
four wounded, fourteen Indians killed and four women prisoners, 
were the results of this aflair. The army advanced upon the town 
to which the herdsmen belonged, and found it deserted. " On reach- 
ing the square, we discovered a red pole planted at the council house, 
on which was suspended about fifty fresh scalps, taken from the 
heads of extreme age down to the tender infant, of both sexes, and 
in an adjacent house those of near three hundred men, which bore 
the appearance of being the barbarous trophies of settled hostility 
for three or four years past."* 

General Gaines continued the pursuit on the following day, and 

* These scalps were doubtless the accumulation of many years and of previous 
wars. The Seminoles had not taken ten scalps since the war of 1812, exclusive of 
those of Lieutenant Scott's party. 



304 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1818. 

gathered a prodigious booty. " Tlie red pole," says the adjutant's 
report, "was again found planted in the square of Fowltown, bar- 
barously decorated with human scalps of both sexes, taken within 
the last six months from the heads of our unfortunate citizens. Gen- 
eral M'Intosh, Avho was Avith General Gaines, routed a small party 
of savages near Fowltown, killed one negro and took three prison- 
ers, on one of whom was found the coat of James Champion, of 
Captain Curaming's company, fourth regiment of infimtry, Avho was 
killed by the Indians on board of one of our boats descending the 
river to the relief of Major Muleuberg. The pocket-book of Mr. 
Leigh, Avho was murdered at Cedar Creek on the twenty-first of 
January last, was found in Kinghajah's town, containing several let- 
ters addressed to the deceased, and one to General Glascock. About 
one thousand head of cattle fell into our hands, many of which were 
recognized by the Georgia militia as having brands and marks of 
their citizens. Near three thousand bushels of corn were found, Avith 
other articles useful to the army. Upward of three hundred houses 
were consumed, leaving a tract of fertile country in ruin, where 
these wretches might have lived in plenty, but for the vile machina- 
tions oi foreign traders, if not agentsy 

On the sixth of April the army reached St. Marks, and halted in 
the vicinity of the fort. The general sent' in to the governor his 
aiddecamp, Lieutenant Gadsden, bearing a letter explanatory of 
his objects and purposes. He had come, he said, "to chastise a 
savage foe, who, combined Avith a laAvless band of negro brigands, 
had been for some time past carrying on a cruel and unprovoked 
war against the citizens of the United States." He had already met 
and put to flight parties of the hostile Lidians. He had received 
information that those Indians had fled to St. Marks and found pro- 
tection Avithin its Avails ; that both Indians and negroes had procured 
supi^lies of ammunition there ; and that the Spanish garrison, from 
the smallness of its numbers, AA'-as unable to resist the demands of 
the savages. " To prevent the recurrence of so gross a violation of 
neutrality, and to exclude our savage enemies from so strong ahold 
as St. Marks, I deem it expedient to garrison that fortress Avith 
American troops until the close of the present Avar. This measure 
is justifiable on the immutable principle of self-defense, and cannot 
but be satisfactory, under existing circumstances, to his Catholic 
Majesty, the King of Spain." 



1818.] THE SEMINOLE WAR. 305 

The governor replied that he had been made to understand Gen- 
eral Jackson's letter only with the greatest difficulty, as there was no 
one within the fort who could properly translate it. He denied that 
the Indians and negroes had ever obtained supplies, succor, or en- 
couragement from Fort St. Marks. On the contrary, they had 
menaced the fort with assault because supplies had been refused 
them. With regard to delivering up the fort intrusted to his care 
he had no authority to do so, and must >vrite on the subject to his 
government. Meanwhile lie prayed General Jackson to suspend his 
opei'ations. " The sick your excellency sent in," concluded the po- 
lite governor, " are lodged in the royal hospital, and I have afforded 
them every aid which circumstances admit. I hope your excel- 
lency will give me other opportunities of evincing the desire I have 
to satisfy you. I trust your excellency will pardon my not answer- 
ing you as soon as requested, for reasons which have been given 
you by your aiddecamp. I do not accomj)any this with an English 
translation, as your excellency desires, because there is no one in 
the fort capable thereof, but the before-named William Hambly 
proposes to translate it to your excellency in the best manner he can." 

This was delivered to General Jackson on the morning of the 7th 
of April. He instantly replied to it by taking possession of the 
fort ! The Spanish flag was lowered, the stars and stripes floated 
from the flag-staff, and American troops took up their quarters 
within the fortress. The governor made no resistance, and, indeed, 
could make none. When all was over he sent to General Jackson 
a formal protest against his proceedings, to which the general 
briefly replied : " The occupancy of Fort St. Marks l^y my troops 
previous to your assenting to the measure became necessary from 
the difficulties thrown in the way of an amicable adjustment, not- 
withstanding my assurances that every arrangement should be 
made to your satisfaction, and expressing a wish that my move- 
ments against our common enemy should not be retarded by a 
tedious negotiation. I again repeat what has been reiterated to 
you through my aiddecamp, Lieutenant Gadsden, that your per- 
sonal rights and private property shall be respected, that your situa- 
tion shall be made as comfortable as practicable while compelled to 
remain in Fort St. Marks, and that transports shall be furnished as 
soon as they can be obtained to convey yourself, family, and com- 
mand, to Pensacola." 



806 I. I 1- E OF AKDKKW JACKSON. [1818. 

Alexander Arbuthnot, a Scotch trader among tlie Lidians, was 
found within the fort, an inmate of the governor's own quarters. 
It appears that on the arrival of General Jackson he was preparing 
to leave St. Marks. His horse, saddled and bridled, was standing 
at the gate. General Jackson had no sooner teiken possession of 
St. Marks than Arbuthnot became a prisoner. " In Fort St. Marks," 
wrote General Jackson, " an inmate in the family of the Spanish 
commandant, an Englishman, by the name of Arbuthnot was found. 
Unable so isfactorily to explain the object of his visiting this 
country, and there being a combination of circumstances to justify 
a susj^icion . that his views were not honest, he was oi'dered into 
close confinement." * 

Two noted Indian chiefs, Francis and Himollemico, fell into the 
general's hands at St. ]Marks. " The next day after their capture," 
Avrites an American officer, " Captain McKeever sent them up to 
the fort, when General Jackson ordered them to be hanged. Fran- 
cis was a handsome man, six feet high ; would weigh say one hun- 
dred and fifty pounds ; of pleasing manners ; conversed well in 
English and Spanish ; humane in his disposition ; by no means bar- 
barous — withal, a model chief When he was informed that Gen- 
eral Jackson had ordered him to be hanged, he said, 

" 'What ! like a dog ? Too much. Shoot me, shoot me. I will 
die willingly if you will let me see General Jackson.' 

" 'He is not here,' said the ofiicer, 'he is out at the encampment 
with the army.' 

"His hands were then tied behind him, and in the effort to con- 
fine him he dropi^ed from the sleeve of his coat a butcher-knife, that 
he said he had intended to kill General Jackson with if he ever laid 
his eyes on him. Francis was dressed with a handsome gray frock- 
coat, a present to him while on his late trip to England. The rest 
of his dress was Indian. From his appearance, he must have been 
about forty years of age. 

" Himollemico was a savage-looking man, of forbidding counte- 
nance, indicating cruelty and ferocity. He was taciturn and mo- 
rose. He was the chief that captured Lieutenant R. W. Scott with 
forty men and seven women, about the first of December, 1817, on 
the Appalachicola. The lieutenant with his whole party (except 
one woman retaken by General Jackson in the April following) 
were most inhumanly massacred by order of Himollemico. Lieu- 



1818.] T H E SEMINOLE WAR . 807 

tenant Scott (as described by the Avoman prisoner) was tortured in 
every conceivable manner. Lightwood slivers were inserted into 
his body and set on fire, and in this way he Avas kept under torture 
for the whole day. Lieutenant Scott repeatedly begged and impor- 
tuned the woman that escaped the slaughter to take a tomahawk 
and end his jDain. But ' no,' said she, ' I would as soon kill my^ 
self.' All the while Himollemico stood by, and with a fiendish grin 
enjoyed the scene." 

For two days only the army remained at Fort St. Marks. Su- 
wannee, the far-famed and dread Suwannee, the town of the great 
chief Boleck, or Bowlegs, the refuge of negroes, was GeneralJack- 
son's next object. It was one hundred and seven miles from St. 
Marks, and the route lay through a flat arid swampy wilderness, 
little known, and destitute of forage. On the ninth of April, leav- 
ing a strong garrison at the fort, and supj^lying the troops with ra- 
tions for eight days, the general again plunged into the forest ; the 
white troops in advance, the Indians, under General Mcintosh, a 
few n:iles in the rear. 

Daring the night of the twelfth the sentinels heard the lowing of 
cattle and the barking of dogs. In the morning the country Avas 
examined, but no signs of Indians were discovered. Word was 
sent to Mcintosh to scour the country far and wide, and that the 
main body would await his return, and send him aid if he should 
come upon any considerable body of the enemy. 

Mcintosh soon fell in with a party of hostile Seminoles. " I heard," 
he wrote to General Mitchell, " of Peter McQueen being near the 
road we were traveling, and I took my warriors and went and 
fought him. There seemed to be a considerable number collected 
there. When we first began to fight them they were in a bad 
swamp, and fought us there for about an hour, Avhen they ran, and 
we followed them three miles. They fought us in all about three 
hours. We killed thirty-seven of them, and took ninety-eight wo- 
men and children and six men prisoners, and about seven hundred 
head of cattle, and a num-ber of horses, with a good many hogs and 
some corn. We lost three killed, and had five wounded. Our pris- 
oners tell us that there was one hundred and twenty warriors from 
six difi'erent towns." 

General Jackson added in his own dispatch that Mcintosh killed 
•three of the enemy with his own hands and captured one. 



308 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1818. 

The army resumed its march toward the Suwannee, wading 
through extensive sheets of water ; the horses starving for svant of 
forage, and giving out daily in large numbers. Late in the after- 
noon of the third day after the last skirmish the troojjs reached a 
"remarkable pond," "w^iich the Indian guides said was only six 
miles from Suwannee town. " Here," says the general, " I should 
have halted for the night had not six mounted Indians (supposed to 
be spies) who were discovered, effected their escape. This deter- 
mined me to attempt, by a forced movement, to prevent the re- 
moval of their effects, and, if possible, themselves from crossing 
the river, for my rations being out, it was all important to secure 
their supplies for the subsistence of my troojDs." At sunset, ac- 
cordingly, the lines were formed, and the whole army rushed 
forAvard. 

But the prey had been forewarned ! A letter from Arbuthnot to 
his son had reached the place, and had been explained to Bowlegs, 
who had been ever since employed in sending the women and 
children across the broad Suwannee into those inaccessible retreats 
which render Florida the best place in the world for such warfare 
as Indians wage. 

The troops reached the vicinity of the town, and, in a few min- 
utes, drove out the enemy and captured the place. 

The pursuit was continued on the following morning by General 
Gahies ; but the foe had vanished by a hundred paths, and were no 
more seen. 

In the evening of April 17th the whole army encamped on the 
level banks of the Suwannee. In the dead of night an incident oc- 
curred which can here be related in the language of the same young 
Tennessee officer who has already narrated for us the cajjlure of the 
chiefs and their execution. Fortunately for us, he kept a journal of 
the campaign. This journal, written at the time partly with a de- 
coction of roots, and partly with the blood of the journalist,* for 
ink was not attainable, lay for forty years among his papers, and 
was copied at length by the obliging hand of his daughter for the 
readers of these pages. " About midnight," wrote our journalist, 
"of April 18th, the repose of the army, then bivouacked on the 
plains of the old town of SuAvannee, Avas suddenly disturbed by the 

1 
* J. B. Eodgers, Esq., of South Rock Island, Tennessee. 



1818.] THE SEMINOLE WAR. 309 

deep-toned report of a mnsket, instantly followed b}^ the sharp 
crack of the American rifle. The signal to arms was given, and 
whore but a moment before could only be heard the measured trend 
of the sentinels and the low moaning of the long-leafed pines, now 
stood five thousand men, armed, watchful, and ready for action. 
The cause of the alarm was soon made known. Four men, two 
Avhites and two negroes, had been caj)tured while attempting to en- 
ter the camp. They Avere taken in charge by the guard, and the 
army again sank to such repose as war allows her votaries. When 
morning came it was ascertained that the prisoners were Robert C. 
Ambrister, a white attendant named Peter B. Cook, and two negro 
servants — Ambrister, being a nephew of the English governor, 
Cameron, of the Island of New Providence, an ex-lieutenant of 
British marines, and suspected of being engaged in the business of 
counseling and furnishing munitions of war to the Indians, in fur- 
theram.'e of their contest with the United States. Ignorant of the 
situation of the American camp, he had IJlundered into it while en- 
deavoring to reach Suwannee town to meet the Indians, being also 
unaware that the latter had been driven thence on the previous day 
by Jackson. 

" Receiving information as to the character and business of Am- 
brister, and learning from Ambrister's attendant that his head-quar- 
ters were on board Arbuthnot's vessel, then lying at anchor at the 
mouth of Suwannee river, about one hundred miles distant, and from 
which he, Ambrister, had just come. General Jackson immediately 
dispatched Lieutenant Gadsden (in later years minister to Mexico) to 
seize the vessel, with the twofold object of obtaining the vessel for 
the transport of his sick and wounded back to St. Marks, and of 
securing further information relative to the plans and business of 
the prisoner." 

Ambrister was conducted to St. Marks and placed in confinqjnent, 
together with his companions. The fact that through Arbuthnot 
the Suwannee people had escaped, and rendered the last swift 
march comparatively fruitless, was calculated, it must be owned, to 
exasperate the mind of General Jackson. 

The Seminole war, so called, was over — for the time. On the 
20th of April the Georgia troops marclied homeward to be dis- 
banded. On the 24th, General Mcintosh and his brigade of Indians 
were diemiased- On the 25th, General Jackson, with his Tenuos- 



310 LIFE OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [1818. 

seeans and regulars, was again at Fort St. Marks. It was forty-six 
days since lie had entered Florida, and thirteen weeks since he left 
ITashville. 

General Jackson, in the conduct of this campaign, had exer- 
cised imperial functions. He had raised troops by a method un- 
known to the laws. He had invaded the dominions of a king 
who was at peace with the United States. He had seized a fortress 
of that province, expelled its garrison, and garrisoned it with his 
own troops. He had assumed the dread prerogative of dooming 
men to death without trial. All this may have been right. But if 
he had been Andrew I., by the grace of God, Emperor of the United 
States, could he have done more ? Could the autocrat of all the 
Russias, leading an expedition into Circassia, do more? Would 
any recent autocrat of Russia have done as much ? 

One more act of imperial authority remained to be performed. 
General Jackson, on his homeward march, halted at the fortress of 
St. Marks, to decide the •fate of the prisoners, Ambrister and Ar- 
buthnot. He had determined to accord them the indulgence of a 
trial, and now selected for that purpose a " special court" of four- 
teen officers, who were ordered to " record all the documents and 
testimony .in the several cases, and their opinion as to the guilt or 
innocence of the prisoners, and what punishment, if any, should be 
inflicted." 

At noon, on the 28th of April, the court convened. The mem- 
bers were sworn and Arbuthnot was arraigned. The charges 
hi-ought against him were three in number. Fikst Chaege. — Ex- 
citing the Creek Indians to war against the United States. Second 
Charge. — ^Acting as a spy, aiding and comforting the enemy, and 
supplying them with the means of war. Third Charge. — Exciting 
the Indians to murder and destroy William Hambly and Edmund 
Doyle, and causing their arrest, with a view to their condemnation 
to death, and the seizure of their property, on account of their active 
and zealous exertions to maintain peace between Spain, the United 
States, and the Indians, they being citizens of the Spanish govern- 
ment. 

The evidence adduced was of two kinds, documentary and pei'- 
sonal. The letters and papers that were found on board the prison- 
er's schooner were all submitted to the court. They proved that 
the prisoner had sympathized with the Seminoles; that he bad 



1818.] THE SE MIX OLE WAR. 311 

considered them an injured people ; that lie bad written manj'- let- 
ters entreating the interference in their behalf of English, Spanish, 
and American authorities ; that he had given them notice of the ap- 
proach of General Jackson's army, and advised them to fly ; that he 
had, on all occasions, exerted whatever influence he possessed to 
induce the Indians to live in peace with one another and with their 
neighbors. 

Arbuthnot in his defense called the captain of his vessel, who tes- 
tified that no arms had been brought to the province by the prison- 
er, and but small quantities of powder and lead, and that Ambris- 
ter had seized the prisoner's schooner and used it for purposes of 
his own. Arbuthnot's address to the court at the conclusion of the 
trial, was respectful, calm, and able. He commented chiefly upon 
the hearsay character of the evidence. The " trial " over, the pris- 
oner was removed, and the court deliberated. Two-thirds of the 
court concurred in the following opinion and sentence : " The court, 
after mature deliberation on the evidence 'adduced, find the prison- 
er, A. Arbuthnot, guilty of the first charge, and guilty of the sec- 
ond charge, leaving out the Avords, ' acting as a spy :' and, after 
mature reflection, sentence him, A. Ai'buthnot, to be suspended by 
the neck until he is dead." 

Ambrister was next arraigned. "We need not dwell upon his 
trial. He was accused of aiding and comforting the enemy, 
and of " levying war against the United States," by assuming com- 
mand of the Indians, and ordering a party of them " to give battle 
to an army of the United States." It was proved against Ambris- 
ter that he had come to Florida " on Woodbine's business," which, 
he said, Avas to "see the negroes righted;" that he hatl captured 
Arbuthnot's schooner, plundered his store, and distributed its con- 
tents among his negro and Indian followers ; that he had written 
to New Providence asking that arms and ammunition might be 
sent to the Indians ; and that he had sent a party to " oppose " the 
American invasion ; the last-named fact was proved by a sentence 
in one of his own letters to the governor of New Providence. "I 
expect," wrote Ambrister, March 20th, 1818, "that the Americans 
and Indians Avill attack us daily. I have sent a party of men to 
oppose them." 

The prisoner made no formal defense, but merely remarked, that 
" inasmuch as the testimony which was introduced in this case was 



812 LIFE OF ANDREAV .) A C K S O >r . [1813. 

very explicit, and went to every point the prisoner could wish, he 
has nothing further to offer in his defense, but puts himself upon 
the mercy of the honorable court." 

The honorable court pronounced him guilty of the principal charge, 
and sentenced him to be shot. But, we are told, " One of the 
members of the court, requesting a reconsideration of his vote, on 
the sentence, the sense of the court was taken thereon, and decided 
in the affirmative, when the vote was again taken, and the court 
sentenced the prisoner to receive fifty stripes on his bare back, and 
to be confined with a ball and chain to hard labor for twelve calen- 
dar months." * 

The trials, which began at noon on the twenty-sixth, terminated 
late in the evening of the twenty-eighth ; when the proceedings 
of the court were submitted to the commanding general. On the 
following morning, before the dawn of day, General Jackson and 
the main body of his army were in full march for Fort Gadsden. 
He left at St. Marks a garrison of American troops. The follow- 
ing order with regard to the court and the prisoners it had tried, 
issued just before his departure, was dated, " Camp four miles north 
of St. Marks, April 29, 1818." 

" The commanding general approves the finding and sentence 
of the court in the case of A. Arbuthnot, and approves the finding 
and first sentence of the court in the case of Robert C. Ambrister, 
and disapproves the reconsideration of the sentence of the honorable 
court in this case. 

" It appears, from the evidence and pleading of the prisoner, that 
he did lead and command within the territory of Spain (being a 
subject of tjrreat Britain) the Indians in war against the United 
States, those nations being at peace. It is an established principle 
of the laws of nations, that any individual of a nation making war 
against the citizens of any other nation, they being at peace, for- 
feits his allegiance, and becomes an outlaw and pirate. This is 
the case of Robert C. Ambrister, clearly shown by the evidence 
adduced. 

"The commanding general orders that Brevet-Major A. C. W. 
Fanning, of the corps of artillery, will have, between the hours of 
eight and nine o'clock, a. m., A. Arbuthnot suspended by the neck 
with a rope until he is dead^ and Robert C. Ambrister to be shot 
to deaths agreeable to the sentence of the court. 



1818.] THK SEillXOLE WAK. 313 

" John James Arbuthnot will be furnished with a pasf?tige to 
Pensacola by the first vessel. 

" The special court, of which Brevet Major-General E. P. Gaines 
is president, is dissolved." « 

The sentences of the general were innnediately executed. It is 
difficult to characterize aright'this deplorable tragedy. The execu- 
tion of Arbuthnot, apart from all extenuating circumstances, was 
an act of such complicated and unmitigated atrocity, that to call it 
murder would be to defame all ordinary murderers. He was put to 
death for acts every one of which was innocent, and some of which 
were eminently praiseworthy. Even Ambristei''s fault was one 
which General Jackson himself would have been certain to commit 
in the same circumstances. He sent a party to " oppose " the in- 
A'asion of the province ; and even his seizure of Arbuthnot's schoon- 
er seems to have been done to provide his followers with the means 
of defense. Arbuthnot was convicted upon the evidence of men 
who had the strongest interest in his conviction. And who pre- 
sided over the court ? Was it not General Gaines, whose treatment 
of the Fowltown warriors, first arrogant and then precipitate, was 
the direct cause of the war and all its horrors ? 

Of all the men concerned in this tragedy. General Jackson was, 
perhaps, the least blameworthy. We can survey the transaction in 
its completeness, but he could not. He carried out of the war of 
1812 the bitterest recollections of Nichols and Woodbine, who had 
given protection, succor, and honor to the fugitive Creeks. A 
train of circumstances led him to the conclusion that Arbuthnot 
and Ambrister were still doing the work in Florida that Nichols 
and Woodbine had begun in 1814. He expressly says, in one of 
his dispatches, that, at the beginning of hie operations, he was 
" strongly impressed with the belief that this Indian war had been 
excited by some unprincipled foreign agents," and that the Semi- 
noles were too weak in numbers to have undertaken the war, un- 
less they had received assurances of foreign support. Woodbine 
had actually been in Florida the summer before, brought thither 
by Arbuthnot. To the " machinations " of these men General 
Jackson attributed the massacre of Lieutenant Scott, and consider- 
ed them equally guilty. They were at length in his power, and he 
then selected fourteen of his ofiicers to examine the evidence against 
them. After three days' investigation those officers brought in a 
14 



314 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1818. 

verdict'that accorded exactly with his own previous convictions, as 
well as with the representations of men who surrounded his per- 
son and had an interest in coniirming his impressions. 

He never wavered in his opmion thaWthe execution of Arbuthnot 
and Ambrister was just and necessary. In a dispatch to the secre- 
tary of war, written a few days after the execution, he wrote : " I 
hope the execution of these two unprincipled villains will prove an 
awful example to the world, and convince the government of Great 
Britain, as well as her subjects, that certain, if slow, retribution 
awaits those unchristian wretches who, by false promises, delude and 
excite an Indian tribe to all the horrid deeds of savage war." Ben- 
jamin F. Butler said, in his eulogy of Jackson, delivered in New 
York after the death of the general : " Having mentioned this 
inaident, I feel it right to state my entire conviction that in this, as 
in every other act of his public life, he proceeded under a deep sense 
of what he believed to be the injunction of diity ; and duty was 
ever to him as the voice of heaven. ' My God would not have 
smilfed on me,' was his characteristic remark, when speaking of this 
affair to him who addresses you, 'had I punished only the poor 
ignorant savages, and spared the Avhite men who set them on.' " 

This is not a justification, for it is not permitted to any man to 
make mistakes of the kind that cost human lives. The execution 
of Ambrister had some slight shadoAV of justice, but that of poor 
Arbuthnot had none ; and the violent death of that worthy old man 
must remain a blot upon the memory of Andrew Jackson. The 
executions created in England such general and extreme indigna- 
tion, that nothing but the prudence of the ministry prevented a war 
between the two countries. At home these sad events were little 
understood, and after a debate of a whole month upon them in 
Congress, the conduct of the general was approved. 

The rest of the campaign is related in a private letter by General 
Jackson to one of his oldest friends. We learn from it that the 
Spanish governor liimself had a narrow escape from sharing the fate 
of Arbuthnot. " I returned to Fort Gadsden," wrote the general, 
" when, preparing to disband the militia force, I received informa- 
tion that five hundred and fifty Indians had collected in Peusacolu, 
was fed by the governor, and a party furnished by the governor had 
issued forth and in one night slaughtered eighteen of our citizens, 
and that another party had, with the knowledge of the governor, 



1818.] THE SEMINOLE WAR. 315 

and being furnished by him, Mgnt out pubhcly, murdered <i Mr. QATyij^ 
Stokes and iamily, and had in open day returned to Pensacola and // 
sold the booty, among which Avas, the clothing of Mrs. Stokes. This 
statement was corroborated" by a report of Governor Bibbs. I was 
also informed that the provisions I had ordered for the supply of 
Fort Crawford and my army on board the United States schooner 
Amelia was seized and delivered at Pensacola. With a general de- 
tachment of regulars and six hygadred Tennesseeans I marched for 
Pensacola. While on my march thither I was met by a protest of 
the governor of iPensacola ordering me out of the Floridas, or he 
would oppose force to force and drive me out of the territory of 
Spain. This bold" (and he might have added Jachsonian) "meas- 
ure of the governor, who had alleged weakness as the cause of his 
non-fultillment of the treaty with the United States, when united 
with the facts stated, and of which then I bad positive proof, that 
at that time a large number of the hostile Indians were then in Pen- 
sacola, who I had dispersed east of the Appalachicola, unmasked 
the duplicity of the governor and his having aided and abetted the 
Indians in the war against us. I hastened my steps, entered Pen- 
sacola, took possession of my supplies. The governor had fled 
from the city to the Barrancas, where he had thoroughly fortified 
himself. 

" I demanded possession of the garrison to be held by American 
troops until a guarantee should be given for the fulfillment of the 
safety of the frontier. This was refused. 

" I approached the Barrancas with one nine-pound piece and five 
eight-inch howitzers. They opened their batteries upon me. It was 
returned spiritedly, and the white flag went up in the evening, and 
the capitulation entered into which you have seen. It is true I had 
my ladders ready to go over the walls, which, I believe, the garrison 
discovered, and was afraid of a night attack and surrendered. When 
the flag Avas hoisted they had three hundred men in the garrison, 
and the others were sent out in the night across the bay before I 
got possession. 

" Thus, sir, I have given you a concise statement of the facts' and 
all I regret is that I had not stormed the Avorks, captured the gov- 
ernor, put him on his trial for the murder of Stokes and his fimily, 
and hung hiin for the deed. I could adopt no other way to '• put an 
end to the war'' but by possessing myself o^ the strongholds that 



316 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1821. 

was a refuge to the enemy, and affording tliem the means of offense. 
The officers of Spain having by their acts, identifying themselves 
with our enemy, become such, and by the law of nations, subjected 
themselves to be treated as such. Self defense justified me in every 
act I did. I Avill stand justified before God and all Europe." 

Further details of the capture of Pensacola need not be given, for 
we have already lingered too long in Florida. Between Genei'al 
Jackson and the governor of Pei^acola a vast amount of hostile 
correspondence i:)assed — the general accusing, the governor deny- 
ing — the general sending statements and affidavits, the governor 
retorting by the solemn asseverations of his officers. The letters 
and documents relating to this single affair would fill one hundred 
of these pages, but they were mere variations upon the single 
theme, " You did"—" I did not." 

Five days after the surrender of the Barrancas, General Jackson 
was ready to return homeward. He left in Pensacola a sufficient 
garrison of American troops under the command of Colonel King. 

The general was received on his return to Nashville with enthusi- 
astic demonstrations of regard. A public dinner was given him, 
at which toasts, approving the late events in Florida, were received 
with the greatest applause. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

A .GOVERNOR IN THE CALABOOSE. 

In 1821 when Florida, after some years of negotiation, Avas 
ceded to the United States, General Jackson was appointed gov- 
ei'nor of that territory by President Monroe. He accx?pted the ap- 
pointment, resigned his commission in the army, and set out on his 
journey. Delays vexatious, but unavoidable, occurred in the de- 
livery of the province, and, even after he had taken possession, the 
governor was in the worst possible humor. Mrs. Jackson, who ac- 
companied her fiery lord on this occasion, wrote home in August : 
" There never was a man more disappointed than the genei-al has 
been. In the first place he has not the power to appoint one of 



1821.] IMPRISONMENT OF A GOVERN OK. 317 

his friends ; which, I thought, was in part the reason of his coming. 
But far has it exceeded every calculation ; it has almost taken his 
life. Captain Call says it is equal to the Seminole camp.aign ; well 
I knew it would be a ruining concern ; I shall not pretend to de- 
scribe the toUs, fatigue, and trouble ; those Spaniards had as leave 
die as give up their country. He has had terrible scenes ; the 
governor has been put in the calaboose ; which is a terrible thing, 
really." 

Yes, the Spanish governor had indeed been put into the cala- 
boose ; Colonel Callava, who, of all the governors of Pensacola, was 
by far the most agreeable and the most respectable character. He 
was a Castilian, of a race akin to the Saxon, of light complexion, a 
handsome, well-grown man, of dignified presence and refined man- 
ners. He won rapid promotion by good service in the Peninsular 
war, and was a colonel and a governor before he was forty years of 
age. After the surrender of his town to General Jackson, he still 
retained, as he supposed, the office of Spanish commissioner, and 
continued to reside in the place, to superintend the embarkation of 
artillery, and other unfinished business. With the officers of the 
fourth regiment, which formed the American garrison of Pensa- 
cola, he was a favorite, and was frequently invited by them to en- 
tertainments. Nor were the American ladies in the town averse 
to the society of the handsome Castilian ; though most of them 
found it difficult to converse with a gentlemen whose ignorance of 
the English language was as complete as their ignorance of 
Spanish. 

If an angel from heaven had appeared to General Jackson in the 
guise of a Spanish governor he would not have liked him — so rooted 
was his prejudice against Spanish governors. And that Spanish 
governor from heaven would have found it difficult to so far forget 
or overlook what General Jackson had formerly done in Florida as 
to regard the general with an entirely friendly eye. The presence, 
therefore, of Colonel Callava in Pensacola — particularly after what 
had occurred previous to the surrender — furnished the material for 
a grand explosion, provided the governor and the ex-governor 
should by any accident come into colhsion. 

A collision was destined, to occur, and a worthy gentleman of 
General Jackson's own household was to be its innocent and aston- 
ished cause. 



318 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1821. 

On his journey to Flonda, General Jackson fell in Avith a young 
lawyer and scholar, Mr. Henry M. Brackenridge, of Pennsylvania, 
who was also on his way to Pensacola. Mr. Brackenridge, who 
had already distinguished himself as a reviewer, author, and 
pamphleteer, and had held a foreign a])pointment, had been as- 
sured by the president that he should not be forgotten in the dis- 
tribution of the Florida offices, and he was going to the new terri- 
tory upon that assurance. As he was an accomplished linguist, 
particularly well versed in the Spanish and French languages. Gen- 
eral Jackson, who needed the assistance of just such a gentleman, 
invited him to become a member of his official family, and to aid 
him in forming his government. The invitation was gladly accepted 
by Mr. Brackenridge, and most of the dispatches and proclama- 
tions, signed by General Jackson during his brief tenure of office 
in Florida, were penned by him. In after years, we may add, Mr. 
Brackenridge became Judge Brackenridge, and a member of Con- 
gress ; and he still lives, in honorable retirement in his native state, 
to serve the reader of these pages by contributing to them from 
the stores of his memory. 

After the exchange of flags. General Jackson appointed Mr. 
Brackenridge to the office of alcalde of Pensacola, part of whose 
duty it was to receive from the Spanish authorities, and preserve, 
the papers and records relating to pi-iA^ate property. By the terms 
of the treaty all such documents were to be given over to the au- 
thorities of the United States. 

For the complete imderstanding of the comedy about to be un- 
folded, it is necessary to introduce to the reader another of the 
persons of the drama — Elijius Fromentin, Judge of the United 
States for West Florida. These, then, were the principal actors : 
General Jackson, Colonel Callava, Alcalde Brackenridge, and Judge 
Fromentin. The subordinate characters were numerous, but do 
not need particular inti'oduction. There was, also, a large force of 
supernumeraries, such as Spanish officers, American soldiers, awe- 
struck Creoles, terrified populace, excited Americans, and ladies in 
a state of consternation. 

Scene I. — Alcalde Brackenridge in his office. Enter a quadroon 
woman, with a bundle of papers in her hand. The quadroon states 
her business with the alcalde. 

" You see before ypu, sir" (she said, in substance), " a woman 



1821.] IMPRISON ME XT OF A GOVEBNOR. 319 

robbed of her inheritance by wicked and powerful men. I am one 
of the heii's of Nicholas Maria Vidal, who died in Florida so long 
ago as the year 1807, leaving large possessions — a tract of sixteen 
thousand acres at Baton Rouge, besides valuable property in Pe^ 
sacola. The estate fell into the hands of the great commercial 
house of Forbes &, Co., represented here by Mr. Innerarity. They 
will not disgorge, illnstrions alcalde. We, the lawful heirs of the 
deceased Vidal, have jjetitioned, and petitioned, and petitioned ; 
but always in vain. Our petitions have been granted in word, but 
not in effect. Governors of Pensacola have ordered Forbes & Co. 
to render an account of their stewardship ; but that powerful honse 
laughs at governors, and v,'e are still kept out of our inheritance. 
At this time, Seiior Alcalde, we are about to lose all hope ; for the 
papers upon which we depend for the gaining of our rights are 
about to be carried away to Havana. They are in the custody of 
one Domingo Sousa, an officer under Colonel Callava. Sousa will 
permit us, he says, to copy the papers, which consist of hundreds 
of pages of manuscript ; but we are poor and can not pay the ex- 
pense of copying. Now, we throw ourselves upon the justice of 
the American government, and beg that our papers may not be 
carried out of the province, and that our inheritance may be given 
to us." 

The tender heart of the alcalde was touched by this recitSl. He 
examined the papers brought by the woman. They appeared to 
confirm her story. It was evident that the papers in the possession 
of Sousa belonged to the class of documents which, by the treaty 
of cession, were to be left in Florida. The alcalde determined 
that, as far as in him lay, he would cause justice to be done to the 
heirs of Vidal. The papers should not be carried off, at least. 

Scene II. — General Jackson in his office. The alcalde enters. 
The alcalde repeats the piteous tale of the quadroon, and the soul 
of General Jackson swells with virtuous indignation as he listens to 
the story. He, too, resolves that the papers shall be rescued from 
Sousa's strong box, and the wrongs of the heirs righted. Yes — by 
the Eternal ! 

" Bvit stop, Mr. Alcalde. TMs is a serious matter, and may lead 
to important consequences. We will have every thing put into writ- 
ing. Prepare a written application to me, as governor of the ter- 
ritory, for authority +^^0 demand tlie papers from Domingo Sousa." 



320 LIFE OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [1821. 

The alcalde obeyed. The governor, in turn, drew up the requisite 
order, addressed to three gentlemen, Alcalde Brackenridge, George 
Walton, Secretary of West Florida, ^nd John Miller, Clerk of the 
l||Iounty Court. 

Scene III. — An apartment in the house of Don Domingo Sousa. 
Enter Messrs. Brackenridge, Walton, and Miller, received by Don 
Domingo with profound salutations. They make known their er- 
rand. Seiior Sousa, at once, acknowledged that he had in his pos- 
session two boxes of papers, but they belonged to the military tri- 
bunal and to the revenue department, and had no connection 
with private property. In testimony whereof, he produced the 
boxes and permitted the commissioners to examine their contents. 
Most of the jDapers proved to be of the character which Seiior Sousa 
had represented them to be ; but in one of the boxes the doctiments 
relating to the estate of Nicholas Maria Yidal were found. The 
commissioners demanded those documents. Seiior Sousa replied 
that he was but the servant of Colonel Callava, who had placed 
these boxes in his custody, and that, without an order from Col- 
onel Callava, he could not in honor deliver up any part of their 
contents. The commissioners presented to him a-written demand 
for the papers, to which Sefior Sousa returned a written refusal. 

Exeunt commissioners. Don Domingo Sousa, with the assistance 
of a negro servant, conveyed the boxes in haste to the house of Col- 
onel Callava, and hopes he has washed his hands of them. 

Scene IV. — At the office of General Jacks,on. The general re- 
ceives the report of the commissioners, and is filled with indigna- 
tion at Sousa's audacity. , He issues an order to the following ef- 
fect : " Colonel Robert Butler, of the army of the United States, 
and Colonel John Miller, clerk of the county of Escambia, are 
hereby commanded forthwith to proceed to seize the body of the 
Baid Domingo Sousa, together with the said papers, and bring him 
and them before me, at my office immediately, to the end that he 
then and there answer such interrogatories as may be put to him; 
and to comply with such order and decree touching the said docu- 
ments and records, as the rights of the individuals may require and 
the justice of the case demand." 

The astonished Sousa is soon brought in a })risoner, and subject- 
ed to a rigorous questioning. He could only reply that he had 
taken the papers to the house of Colonel Callava, and there left 



1821.] IMPRISONMENT OF A G O V E.R N O K . 321 

them, in the absence of Callava, in charge of the major-domo, whose 
name was FuUarat. General Jackson ordered Sousa to be con- 
ducted under military guard to Colonel Callava, to procure the 
papers, to bring them to him, in default of which he was to be 
committed to the calaboose, and therein confined until the delivery 
of the papers. Lieutenant Sousa departs under guard. 

ScE^'E v.- A dining-room at the head-quarters of the fourth reg- 
iment. A large party seated at the dinner table, among them Col- 
onel Brooke of the fourth regiment. Captain Kearney of the United 
States navy, Judge Fromentin, Mrs. Brooke, and other ladies. Col- 
onel Callava, and a number of Spanish officers. A noise heard 
without. Enter, Domingo Sousa, in a state of wild excitement, de- 
manding to see his chief. Colonel Callava, and exclaiming, '• They 
are conducting me to prison." 

" For what cause ?" inquired Colonel Callava, rising from the 
table. 

Sousa explains. Colonel Callava then ordered his aiddecamp to 
go to Don Andrew Jackson, and infoim him that Sub-Lieutenant 
Sousa was indeed one of his ofiicers, and had no authority to deliver 
the papers intrusted to him. If Don Andrew would only address 
himself to him. Colonel Callava, Don Andrew should have every 
satisfaction. ' ■ 

Exeunt Sousa and the officers in whose custody he was. Exit 
the aiddecamp. Exit Colonel Callava stricken with indigestion. 
Colonel Callava goes home in agony. Dinner j^arty disperses. 
Mrs. Brooke compassionate. Sousa is conducted to the calaboose. 

Scene VI. — The ofiice of General Jackson. The general has 
been informed of the result of the interview between Sousa and his 
colonel. The blood of the terrible Don Andrew is now thoroughly 
up. He will have the papers before he sleeps, or know the reason 
why. He writes the following brief but ominous order, addressed 
to Colonel Brooke : " Sir, you will furnish an officer, sergeant, cor- 
poral, and twenty men, and direct the officer to call on me by half- 
past eight o clock, p. m., for orders. They will have their arms and 
accouterments complete, with twelve rounds of ammunition." 

At the time appointed, Lieutenant Mountz, of the fourth regi- 
ment, Avith a file of twenty men, arrived at the oflUce of Governor 
Jackson, and waited for further orders.. The irate governor pro- 
ceeded with much circumspection. His orders were that Colonel 
14* 



322 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1821 

Robert Butler, of the ni-my, Dr. Bronaugh, and Alcalde Bracken- 
ridge, should proceed to the house of Colonel Callava, accompanied 
by the troops, and demand the papers. If Colonel Callava gave 
them up, well ; if not Lieutenant Mountz was ordered " immediately 
to take the said Colonel Callava and his steward Fullarat into 
custody and bring them before me, to answer such interrogatories 
as are required by the circumstances attending the case." 

Scene VII. — At the residence of Don Jose Callava, Colonel in 
the Spanish army and ex-governor of Pensacola. The papers were 
formally demanded. Whether Colonel Callava would not or could 
not understand the affair, is not quite certain ; but he could not be 
induced to give up the papers. " One of the three," wrote Callava, 
afterward, " j)resented himsetf in my lioiise, and gave me an 
abstract, written on a half sheet of paper, in the English language, 
and signed Alcalde BracJcenridge. I took it; I told him that I 
should have it translated, and should rej^ly to it ; he went away ; I 
gave it to the interpreter at that hour, which was nine at night, and 
sought repose on the bed : but, a while after, and without further 
preliminaries, a party of troops, with the commissioners, assaulted 
the house, breaking the fence (notwithstanding the door was open), 
and the commissioners entered my apartment ; they surrounded 
my bed with soldiers witli drawn bayonets in their hands, they re- 
moved the mosquito net, they made me sit up, and demanded the 
papers, or they looidd use the arins against my person. It ought 
to be remarked that, of the three, only one spoke and understood 
a little of the Spanish language ; he was the only interpreter, and I 
neither speak nor understood one word of English." 

The American commissioners, in their report, said : " We again 
demanded the papers, reiterating our sentiments, that his refusal 
would be viewed as an act 'of open mutiny to the civil authority 
exercised in the Floridas, and that he must expect the consequences. 
He persisted to refuse, and the officer of the guard was oi'dered to 
take him and his steward Fullarat into custody and bring them 
before your excellency, which is now done. We would add, in 
conclusion, that Colonel Callava repeatedly asserted that he would 
not be taken out of his house alive, but he seemed to act without 
much difficulty when the guard was ordered to prime and load." 

Scene VIII. — Again at the office of General Jacksoiv Time 
■about ten in the evening. Present, a gi-e.t oro'vd of excited spec- 



1821.] IMPRISONMENT OF A GOVERNOR. 323 

tators. Colonel Callava, the alcalde, Colonel Butler, and Dr. 
Bronaugh, enter the ajDartment, and General Jackson politely waves 
Colonel Callava to a seat. A scene of the utmost violence en- 
sued, and continued for two hours. One of the Spanish officers 
present gives a curious account of what occurred: " The goverj^or, 
Don Andrew Jackson, with turbulent and violent actions, with dis- 
jointed reasonings, blows on the table, his mouth foaming, and 
possessed Avith tlie furies, told the Spanish commissary to deliver 
the papers as a private individual; and the Spanish commissary, 
with the most forcible expressions, answered him that he (the com- 
missary) did not resist the delivery of papers, because he still did 
not know what papers were demanded of him ; that, as soon as he 
could know it, if thev were to be delivered, he would deliver them 
most cheerfully ; and that, if papers were demanded of him which 
he ought not to deliver, he would resist it by the regular and pre- 
scribed means ; that all these questions were not put to him in 
writing ; that his answers were the same as he had given to eveiy 
interrogatory which had been put to him, because he was not per- 
mitted to write in his own defense ; and also, that he would answer 
for the future consistency of it, as well as what had been asked of 
him, and all that had been done to him ; that he wished for this pro- 
tection of the law to every man ; and that he would never yield. 

" The* governor, Don Andrew Jackson, furious, did not permit the 
interpreter to translate what the Spanish commissary answered, that 
the bystanders, it appears, might not understand it ; and the inter- 
preter made such short translations that what the Spanish commis- 
sary took two minutes to exj)lain he reduced to only two words ; 
and that, when the governor gave him time enough (as has been 
since related by various persons who spoke both languages), of what 
the ^Danish commissary said, not even half was interpreted, and 
that little not faithfully. Lastly, the'governor, Don Andrew Jack- 
son, after having insulted the Spanish commissary with atrocious 
words, took out an order, already written, and made the interpreter 
read it, and it contained the order for his imprisonment. 

"The Spanish commissary said that he obeyed it, but asked if the 
governor, Don Andrew Jackson, was not afraid to put in execution 
deeds so unjust against a man like him ; and, rising to his feet, he 
addressed himself to the secretary, whom the governor kept on his 
right hand, and said, in a loud voice, tliat he protested solemnly, 



324 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1821. 

before the government of the United States, against the author of 
the violations of justice against his person and pubUc character. 

" The governor, Don Andrew Jackson, answered to the protest 
that for his actions he was responsible to no other than to his gov- 
ernment, and that it was of little importance to him whatever might 
be the result, and that he might even pi'Otest before God himself," 

Scene IX. — After midnight. An uninclosed place in Pensacola, 
wdth a narrow, low, small brick building in the midst thereof, simi- 
lar in size and appearance to an old brick stable. This building 
was the calaboose. It had served, for some time, as a guard-housfe ; 
givmg shelter to twenty or thirty Spanish soldiers, whose occupa- 
tion of it had not improved its appearance within or without. In 
short, the calaboose was as :^rlorn, dirty, and uncomfortable an 
edifice as can be imagined. It contained two prisoners. Lieutenant 
Sousa and a young man from ISTew Jersey, Avho had been arrested for 
shooting a snipe on the common, contrary to orders. Colonel Callava, 
his major-domo, and all the Spanish officers in the town, escorted 
by Lieutenant Mountz and a file of American troops, arrive at the 
calaboose. All the Spaniards enter. Sentinels are posted outside. 

Upon getting within the calaboose. Colonel Callava, who was 
really a good fellow, was seized with a sense of the ludicrousness 
of his situation, and communicated the same to his officers. Peals 
of laughter were heard within the calaboose. Clothes, chairs, cots, 
beds, were sent for and brought in, also a superabundant supply of 
provisions, including cigars, claret, and champagne. There was a 
popping of corks and a gurgling of wine. There were songs, jokes, 
imitations of the fiery governor, and great merriment. In short. 
Colonel Callava and his officers made a night of it. 

Scene X. — ;Very early the next morning. At the residence of 
Judge Fromentin. " My hoi^e," wrote the judge to the secretary 
of state, " was soon filled with people of all descriptions and lan- 
guages," and all were clamoring for his interference in behalf of the 
imprisoned ex-governor. But what could he do? How procure 
even a copy of the Avarrant npoa which Callava had been arrested ? 
In the course of the morning four Spanish gentlemen of the highest 
respectability, among whom were Innerarity and two Catholic 
priests, made a formal demand of a writ of habeas corpus for tlie 
deliverance of Callava. " Although," continued Judge Fromentin, 
" I do not believe a word of what is attempted to be laid in the 



1821.] IMPKISONMENT OF A GOVERNOR. 325 

charge of Colonel Callava, yet, iu consequence of the state of agita- 
tion into which the whole countiy was thrown, I deemed it a duty 
under the discretionary power vested in all the judges, who have a 
right to grant the Avrit of habeas corpus, to require security, and I 
informed the friends of Colonel Callava who applied to me for the 
writ that I would, before setting Colonel Callava at liberty, reqi;ire 
security for the production before me of the papers said to be in his 
possession. Security was oiFered to any amount. I mentioned 
forty thousand dollars; Colonel Callava himself in twenty thousand, 
and the two securities in ten thousand dollars each, Mr. Lama and 
Mr. Innerarity agreed to become securities. I then issued the writ 
and delivered it to be served on the officer v/ho had the guard of 
the prison where Colonel Callava was confined." 

That ofiicer courteously received the writ, but observed that no 
notice would be taken of it. He handed the document to his 
superior ofiicer, who conveyed it to Governor Jackson. 

Scene XI. — Office of General Jackson. Present, the general, the 
alcalde, and various American officers and citizens. The question 
now occurred, "What next ? Callava was in prison, Sousa was in 
prison, Fullarat was in prison ; but the papers were still in a sealed 
and corded box at Caliava's house. Pensacola had, so far, been 
convulsed to no purpose. The learned alcalde then suggested that 
the next thing to do was to send commissioners to the residence of 
Colonel Callava, take the papers out of the box, and bring them to 
the governor. The suggestion was approved and adopted. The 
commissioners soon returned with the papers. The object of the 
governor was accomplished. 

The question again rose, What next? Obviously, the discharge 
of the prisoners. This proposal also met the governor's approba- 
tion. The order for the discharge w* written, signed, and about 
to be issued, when, what should the governor receive but the Avrit 
of Jiaheas corpus granted by Judge Fromentin! Fire and fury! 
Terrible was the wrath of General Jackson at this interference with 
his proceedings. The order for the discharge of the prisoners, how- 
ever, was issued, and Callava was conducted to his house and re- 
leased. Sousa, Fullarat, and the snipe-shooter were also set free. 
With regard to Judge Fromentin, the general sent him a written 
order to appear that afternoon at five o'clock at the office of the 
governor. 



326 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1821. 

Scene XII. — Judge Fromentin did not appear at the office of 
General Jackson at five, p. m., but sent an excuse to the effect that 
he was suffering under so severe an attack of rheumatism that he 
could not walk. He waited, during the evening, in momentary ex- 
pectation of being carried away to the calaboose by a file of sol- 
diers. That felicity was denied him, however, and he slept undis- 
turbed. 

" The next day," says Judge Fromentin in his official narrative, 
" about noon, Colonel Walton returned, and observed that both the 
general and myself must be desirous of making a report of this 
aflair to the government by the next mail ; that there was no time 
to be lost ; and that it was the general's wish that I should call at 
his office the next day. Accordingly, at four o'clock, p. m., I went ■ 
to the office of General Jackson. The conversation, as you may 
suppose, was nearly all on one side, not unmixed with threats of 
what he said he had a right to do for my having dared to interfere 
with his authority. He asked me whether I would dare to issue a 
writ to be served upon the captain-general of the island of Cuba ? 
I told him, no ; but that if the case should require it, and I had the 
necessai-y jurisdiction, I would issue one to be served upon the pres- 
ident of the United States. Ultimately, he wished to know the 
names of the persons who had applied for the writ of habeas corpus. 
I unhesitatingly told them to him. Then he wished to know whether 
they had made the usual affidavit, stating that they had been refused 
a copy of the warrant upon which Colonel Callava was confined. I 
told him, no ; that the application to me was a verbal one. General 
Jackson then required me to sign what I had just declared; I told 
him I was ready to do it, and I did it accordingly ; Dr. Bronaugh, 
who was present at the coi:\versation, having reduced that part of 
it to writing. Much more |t\^as said by the general respecting the ' 
extent of his powers, the happy selection made of him by the pres- 
ident, the hope that no living man should ever in future be clothed 
with such extraordinary authority. How fortunate it Avas for the 
poor that a man of his feelings had been placed at the head of the 
government, etc., etc., etc., the whole intermixed with, or rather 
consisting altogether of 'the most extravagant praises of himself, 
and the most savage and unmerited abuse of Colonel Callava, and 
of myself for doing my duty in attempting to set him at liberty. 
The first time the authority of General Jackson is contested, I should 



1821.] IMPRISOJ^MENT OF A GOVERNOR. 327 

not be surprised if, to all the pompous titles by him enumerated in his 
order to me, he should super.add that of grand inquisitor ; and if, find- 
ing in my library many books formerly prohibited in Spain, and among 
others the constitution of the United States, he should send me to 
the stake." 

Other accounts represent this scene to have been an extremely 
stormy one. General Jackson himself says that he gave the judge 
a " lecture " which he hoped he would remember ; and in his dis- 
patch to the secretary of state, he denounces the hapless judge in 
terms of unmeasured severity. 

Finale. — A few days after his liberation 'Colonel Callava left 
Florida for Washington, to protest against the indignity done him. 
Several of his officers who remained behind published a statement 
of the late proceedings ; in the course of which they said that 
" none of the interrogatories and highly offensive accusations of the 
general were faithfully interpreted to Colonel Callava, any more 
than the replies of the latter to the former. It was therefore out 
of the power of our cbief, not knowing what was said to him, to 
make the auditoiy understand how innocent he was of the foul 
charges with which his unsullied honor was endeavored to be 
stained." They also observed that they " shuddered " at the vio- 
lent and tyrannical course of General Jackson. 

Upon reading this statement (Avhich was, in faQt, a rei^ly to one 
issued on the part of the governor), General Jackson published a 
proclamation to the following efi'ect : " Whereas, the said publica- 
tion is calculated to excite resistance to the existing government of 
the Floridas, and to disturb the harmony, peace, and good order 
of the same, as well as to weaken the allegiance enjoined by my 
proclamation, heretofore published, and entirely incompatible with 
any privileges which could have been extended to the said officers, 
even if permission had been expressly given to remain in the said 
province, and, under existing circumstances, a gross abuse of the 
lenity and indulgence heretofore extended to them : 

" This is therefore to make known to the said officers to withdraw 
themselves, as they ought heretofore to have done, from the Flori- 
das, agreeably to the said seventh article, on or before tlie third day 
of October next ; after which day, if they, or any of them, shall be 
found within the Floridas, all officers, civil and military, are hereby 
required to arrest and secure them, so thait they may be brought 



828 T. IPE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1821. 

before me, to be dealt with according to law, for contempt and dis- 
obedience of this my j^roclamation." 

This proclamation allowed the officers four days in which to pre- 
pare for their departm-e. They sailed on the fourth day, leaving 
behind them for insertion in the FlorkUan another protest ; which, ' 
that paper refusing to publish, found its way into the columns of 
the National Intelligencer. " We are induced to obey tlie govern- 
or's orders," said the banished officers, " neither by the terror of his 
prisons, nor by the dread of the many vexations which a judge so 
despotic as he has shown himself to be is capable to exercise against 
us — a judge glutting at every expense the vengeance excited in his 
breast by the firm and courageous manner with which our worthy 
superior, Don Jose Callava, maintained his own dignity, and treated 
with merited contempt his furious and inconceivable outrages." 

They added that they left the province to assist Colonel Callava 
in getting before the world and the two governments interested the 
whole truth respecting General Jackson's arbitrary and indecent 
conduct. 

And so ended this comedy of much ado about less than nothing. 
I say less than nothing. To be exact, I may add, one hundred and 
fifty-seven dollars less than nothing. For, upon a legal examination 
of the papers and evidence in the case of the heirs of Vidal against 
Forbes & Co., it appeared that the estate of the deceased Vidal, 
after the payment of all claims against it, was indebted to the house 
of Forbes S Co. in the suin of one hundred aiid fifty-seven dollars! ! 
So the poor quadroon woman had nothing to receive. 

Home again on the 3d of November. The administration still 
sustained him — though Mr, Adams said afterward to a friend, who 
repeated the remark to me, that he dreaded the arrival of a mail 
from Florida, not knowing what General Jackson might do next ; 
and knowing well that whatever he might do the secretary of state 
was the individual who would have to explain it away to the Span- 
ish govei'nment. The country judged the general's proceedings in 
Florida very leniently. Congress talked the matter over a little, 
annulled some of the governor's acts, but did nothing worthy of 
particular record. 

It is not the business of the biographer to comment upon the acts 
of his subject, though he may do so if he will. Every reader per- 
ceives that the conduct of General Jackson in this afiair was well- 



1821.] I MPKIS O^'ME NT OF A GOVERNOR. 329 

iutentioned, hasty and A\'rong. As a soldier, be should have re- 
spected the honorable scruples of Lieutenant Sousa, and applied 
respectfully to Colonel Callava for the papers which Colonel Callava 
alone could lawfully deliver. He should have been patient witli the 
respectable Callava, and allowed time for him to comprehend what 
was required. Even in the last extremity, he should have forborne 
to put so gross an indignity upon an honorable soldier and worthy 
gentleman as thrust him into the place appointed for the safe-keep- 
ing of felons. If arrest was necessary, how easy to confine him to 
his own house. It is evident that Colonel Callava had no ill inten- 
tion in retaining the Vidal papers, but was bursting Avith willing- 
ness to give them up, if they proved to be of the character attrib- 
uted to them. Vidal had been a Spanish officer, and, consequently, 
the papers relating to his estate were placed with those of the mili- 
tary tribunal, and neither Sousa nor Callava had the slightest inter- 
est in keeping or concealing them. The papers, as we have seen, 
proved to be valueless. 

The real sinners in this business were Old Prejudice and Chronic 
Diarrhea. The prejudice of General Jackson against Spaniards Avas 
a thing of forty years' growth. He expected perfidy from a Spanish 
governor ; and an expectation of that kind very easily becomes con- 
viction. If you think a man is a horse-thief, you resent his looking 
at your stable. The disease, too, under v/hich the governor labored 
is one which inflames the temper and relaxes self-control, nourishes 
suspicion, and kills charity. Nevertheless, after giving due weight 
to these extenuating circumstances, many readers will feel that Gen- 
eral Jackson's treatment of Sousa, Callava, and Fromentin, was 
only saved from being atrocious by being ridiculous. 

General Jackson was fifty-four years of age when he returned 
home from Florida to spend the evening of his life among his neigh- 
bors on the banks of the Cumberland. He had already lived, as it 
were, two lives. He had first assisted to subdue the western wil- 
derness, and then taken the lead in defending it. He had first 
broken the power of the southern Indians, and then, by a series of 
treaties, regulated the terms upon which they were to live in neigh- 
borhood with the conquering race. He had first won by his dili- 
gence and skill a fair private estate, and then acquired, by his valor 
and conduct in war, national renown, and intense popularity. He 
might well think that he had done his part, had borne his share of 



330 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1824. 

private and public burdens, and might now, with ijupaired health 
and strength, sit down under his own vine and fig-tree and rest. 
That such was his sincere desire and real intention there are sufficient 
reasons to believe. Civil service he appears always to have accept- 
ed unwillingly, and resigned gladly. Nothing but a summons to 
the field ever completely overcame his reluctance to leave his happy 
nome; and now that the aspect of the world was such as to promise 
a lasting peace to his country, he had, doubtless, no thought but to 
pass his remaining days in the pleasant labors of his farm and the 
tranquil enjoyment of his home. 

A far diflerent lot awaited him. His life, we may almost say, 
was yet to begin ; these fifty-four years that we have reviewed be- 
ing but j)reliminary to the important events yet to occur, in which 
he was to play the most conspicuous part. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 

The presidential cami^aign of 1824 was the least instructive one 
that ever occurred, because it was the one most exclusively per- 
sonal. But it was far from being the least exciting. The long lull 
in the political firmament had given every one a keen desire for a 
renewal of the old excitements, and there was everywhere an eager 
buzz of i^reparation. During the last three years of Mr. Monroe's 
second term the great topic of conversation throughout the country 
was. Who shall be our next president ? 

Six candidates were spoken of and paragraphed. 

First, William Harris Crawford, of Georgia, Secretary of the 
Treasury. He was the heir apparent of the Virginian dynasty, 
and the " regular," the " caucus" candidate of the republican (or 
democratic) party. Next to Mr. Crawford the candidate most 
prominent was John Quincy Adaiiis, of Massachusetts, Secretary 
of State. Beginning his public life a federalist, Mr. Adams had 
gone over to the republican party, and served it unflinchingly. 



1824.1 A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 331 

During the presidency of Mr. Monroe the cliplomatic department 
of the administration had been particularly prominent, and the 
correspondence of the secretary of state with foreign powers 
had filled yie newspapers, and given the country a high idea of 
the secretary's vigor, jiatriotism, and ability. Another candidate 
was John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, Secretary of War, then 
but forty-one years of age. Mr. Calhoun's hopes of reaching the 
presidential chair were founded, like those of Mr. Crawford, upon 
an expectation of winning to his support one of the great northern 
states. As Mr. Crawford depended chiefly upon New York, Mr. 
Calhoun relied most upon Pennsylvania. It was thought, too, by 
his friends that New England would cast many electoral votes for 
a man who was looked upon with peculiar pride by her young and 
aspiring scholars. His high reputation at Yale College for diligence, 
talents, and good morals was still remembered, and tutors pointed 
to him as an instance of youthful virtue meeting its just reward. 

Henry Clay, of Kentucky, long the speaker and pride of the 
house of representatives, was also a candidate. The great West 
had grown into importance at this 'time, and gave promise of the 
magnificent development it has since exhibited. No president, no 
vice-pi'esident, no secretary of state had yet been chosen from that 
part of the Union ; and the time had now come, it was thought, 
when the states west of the Alleghanies should be represented in 
the highest ofiice. Those states had borne the brunt, had won the 
victories, had reared the general of the war of 1812. Those states 
had shown peculiar and constant attachment to the principles of 
the republican party. Would it not be a graceful and becoming 
act, a just and pohtic concession, to select from one of those young 
and i^atriotic states the candidate of the party in behalf of which 
they had fought as well as voted ? Unquestionably it would,, 
thought the lovers of Henry Clay, all of whose friends were lovers. 

De Witt Clinton, of New York, whose canal policy had given 
him national renown, wliile the name of its originator was unknown, 
was also frequently spoken of for the succession to Mr. Monroe. But 
he could not indulge hopes of being then elected, whatever his ex- 
pectations of the future may have been. The field Avas preoccupied, 
the com23etitors were too numerous. A proud, aspiring, unpliant 
man, he could never have reached the highest place. He wolM 
not stoop to conquer. He was as unskilled in the arts of conciha- 



332 L I P E O F A If D R E W J A C K S O N . [l 824. 

tion as he was destitute of the spirit of complaisance. He was a 
statesman without being a politician. 

These candidates do not appear to have anticipated the serious 
proposal of Andrew Jackson for the coveted office. I«see an occa- 
sional paragraph in the northern papers of 1822 and 1823, suggest- 
ing his name for the vice-presidency. The friends of Mr. Adams 
seem to have had a dream of that kind. But in computing their 
chances of success I do not believe that either Crawford, Adams, 
Calhoun, or Clay took into account the jDossible candidateship of 
General Jackson until the year 1823. 

But the name of Jackson had no sooner been presented to the 
nation by the legislature of Tennessee, than it was discovered that 
his popularity was about to render him a most formidable competi- 
tor. To promote his j^residential prospects, his friends caused him 
to be elected to the senate of the United States. Pennsylvania 
soon seconded his nomination, and most of the southern states 
showed a strong inclination to support him. Mr. Calhoun Avith- 
drew his own name in favor of the victor of New Orleans, and 
consented to stand for the vice-presidency. The jorospects of General 
Jackson were further improved by Mr. Crawford being stricken 
with paralysis, which totally prostrated him, and, in effect, narrowed 
the contest to Adams and Jackson. The result of this election, it 
is necessary for us to understand precisely ; else we shall not be able 
to judge correctly the subsequent events. 

John C. Calhoun was elected vice-president by a great majority. 
He received 182 electoral votes out of 261. All New England 
voted for him except Connecticut and one electoral district of New 
Hampshire. General Jackson received thirteen electoral votes for 
the vice-presidency, and was the choice of two entire states for that 
office— Connecticut and Missouri. The result was a triumph for 
Mr. Calhoun, placed him in a commanding position before the coun- 
try, and seemed to open the way to the easy and speedy attainment 
of the highest office. 

Now, for the presidency. For William H. Crawford, only two 
states cast their undivided vote, Georgia and Virginia. New York 
gave him five votes out of thirty-six ; Maryland, one vote out of 
eleven ; Delaware two out of three. His vote stood thus : Virginia, 
W; Georgia, 9 ; New TTork, 5 ; Delaware, 2 ; Maryland, 1 ; total, 
41. Forty-one out of two hundred and sixty-one ! Mr. Clay re- 



1824.] A CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDEXCY. 333 

ceived the entire electoral vote of three states, Kentucky, Missouri, 
and Ohio. The following was his vote: Kentucky, 14; Ohio 16; 
Missouri, 3 ; New York, 4 ; total, 37. For Mr. Adams, New Eng- 
land cast her undivided vote, and New York gave him twenty-six 
out of thirty-six. He stood thus : Maine, 9 ; New Hampshire, 8 ; 
Vermont, 7 ; Massachusetts, 15 ; Connecticut, 8 ; Rhode Island, 4; 
New York, 26 ; Delaware, 1 ; Maryland, 3 ; Louisiana, 2 ; Illinois, 
1 ; total, 84. The followhig Avas the vote for Andrew Jackson : 
New York, 1 ; New Jersey, 8 ; Pennsylvania, 28 ; Maryland, 7 ; 
North Carolina, 15 ; South Carolina, 11 ; Tennessee, 11 ; Louisiana, 
3 ; Mississippi, 3 ; Alabama, 5 ; Indiana, 5 ; Ilhnois, 2 ; total, 99. 
A plurality, not a majorit}'. The people had not elected a president. 

Mr. Adams was the choice of seven states ; General Jackson, of 
eleven states ; Mr. Clay of three states ; Mr. Crawford of three 
states. Still no majority The population of the United States in 
1820 was about nine and a half millions. The population of the 
three states Avhich gave a majority for Mr. Clay was 1,212,337. 
The jDopulation of the three states which preferred Mr. Crawford 
was 1,497,029. The population of the seven states which gave a 
majority for Mr. Adams was 3,032,766. The population of the 
eleven states which voted for General Jackson was 3,757,756. It 
thus appears that General Jackson received, first, more electoral 
votes ; secondly, the vote of more states ; thirdly, the votes of more 
people than any other candidate. Add to these facts, the fact not 
less indisputable, that General Jackson Avas the second choice of 
Kentucky, Missouri, and Georgia ; and it must be admitted that he 
came nearer being elected by the people than any other candidate. 
He was, moreover, a gaining candidate. EA^ery month added to 
his strength. A delay of a few Aveeks longer would probably haA^e 
given him a majority. No man who surveyed the scene Avith an un- 
l^rejudiced eye could doubt that he, more than any one else, Avas 
the nation's choice. The opinions of a host of able politicians, be- 
ginning Avith that of Mr. Jefferson, could be cited in support of this 
position, but it needs no support. Simple addition and the census 
of 1820 are sufficient to establish it. 

The result Avas not knoAvn in all its details when the time came 
for Senator Jackson to begin his journey to Washington in the fall 
of 1824. That he Avas pretty confident, hoAvever, of being the suc- 
cessful candidate, was indicated by Mrs. Jackson's accompanying 



334 LIFE OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [1824. 

him to the seat of government. They traveled m then' own coach- 
and-four, I believe, on this occasion. The opposition papers, 'at 
least, said so, and descanted upon the fact as an evidence of aristo- 
cratic pretensions ; considering it anti-democratic to employ four 
horses to draw a load that four horses sometimes could not tug a 
mile an hour, and were a month in getting to Washington. 

The people having failed to elect a president, it devolved upon 
the house of representatives, voting by states, each state having one 
vote, to elect one from the three candidates who had received the 
highest number of electoral votes. A majority of states being 
necessary to an election, some one candidate had to secure the vote 
of thirteen states. The great question was to be decided on the 
9th of February, 1825. 

Henry Clay, though excluded from the coming competition by the 
smallness of his electoral vote, became, as soon as the f;ict was known, 
the most important j^ersonage in Washington ; the man upon whom 
all eyes were fixed, upon whom all hopes depended. The influence 
which he wielded in the house of representatives, derived from his 
long connection with it, from his winning cast of character, from his 
strenuous will, from his eloquence, placed it in his power to give 
the election to whichever of the candidates he preferred. He was 
Warwick the king-maker. He was Banquo who should get kings, 
but be none. From being the great defeated, he was amused to 
find himself the universally sought. 

Mr. Clay was not on cordial terms with either of the two highest 
candidates. His relations with General Jackson had long been un- 
friendly, but there had recently been a partial reconciliation betAveen 
them. He was far from being a lover or an admirer of Mr. Adams. 
He had opposed, with all his eloquence and all his influence, many 
of the most important measures of Mr. Monroe's administra- 
tion ; of which administration Mr. Adams had been the animating 
soul and the exculpatory pen. That Spanish treaty which gained 
Florida and yielded Texas, upon which Mr. Adams particularly 
plumed himself, had been denounced by Mr. Clay in the house of 
representatives. There had been, moreover, a personal difference 
between the secretary and the speaker, growing out of the negotia- 
tions at Ghent in 1814. And, in no circumstances conceivable, could 
there have been cordiality between the warm, popular, generously 
ambitious Clay, and the patient, plodding, austere, ambitious Adams. 



1824.] A CANDIDATE FOK THE PRESIDENCY. 335 

Noi', in deciding the question before him, was Mr. Ckxy to make 
or mar his own fortunes. He was destined to create enemies and 
to encounter obliquy, liowever he decided it. We may, also, hazard 
the assertion that to whomsoever he should give the presidency, he 
would himself be iuvited to make his own selection of the offices in 
the gift of the president. No one, I think, can survey the whole 
scene of contention, as it appeared in the spring of 1825, without 
assenting to that conclusion. So far as his own interests w^ere con- 
cerned, there was but one consideration calculated to bias his deter- 
mination. If he gave the presidency to Jackson, it would injure his 
own prospects for the next succession, as the republican pai'ty would 
hesitate to select a candidate from the west to succeed a western 
president. Turn about is fair play. In 1828 or 1832, the slighted 
North — New England, New York, Pennsylvania — would urge a 
powerful claim to the succession — powerful but not irresistible. 

No man can say that General Jackson would have appointed Mr. 
Clay to high office, if Mr. Clay had given him the appointing poAver ; 
but it is extremely probable that he would. Mr. Clay received at 
least 07ie most significant hint to that effect, from a gentleman Avho 
stood high in General Jackson's regard. He determined, however, 
to give his vote and influence in flivor of Mr. Adams. The reasons 
that induced Mr. Clay thus to disregard the known wishes of the 
West appear plainly enough in his familiar correspondence. To Mr. 
Blair he again wrote late in January : " Mr. Adams, you know well, 
I should never have selected, if at liberty to draw from the whole 
mass of our citizens for a president. But there is no danger in his 
elevation now, or in time to come. Not so of his competitor, of 
whom I can not believe that killing two thousand five hundred Eng- 
lishmen at New Orleans qualifies for the various, difficult, and com- 
plicated duties of the chief magistracy." To Mr. Francis Brooke, 
of Maryland : " As a friend of liberty, and to the pejnianence of 
our institutions, I can not consent, in this early stage of their exist- 
ence, by contributing to the election of a military chieftain, to give 
the strongest guaranty that the republic will march in the fatal road 
which has conducted every other republic to ruin." Tiie adhesion 
of Mr. Clay to the Adams party, which he took no great pains to 
conceal, rendered its success nearly, but not absolutely certain. The 
old federalists, who could never quite forgive Mr. Adams for desert- 
ing them, still hesitated. Long excluded from office, they were 



836 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825. 

anxious to know whether Mr. Adams, if elected, would continue to 
proscribe them. It was the influence of Daniel Webster, more than 
that of any other man, that finally removed the hesitation of the 
few members of thefederal partythat stilllingered on thepublic stage. 

At noon, on the 9th of February, the members of the senate, with 
their president at their head, preceded by the sergeant-at-arms, 
entered the representatives' hall. The president of the senate 
was invited to a seo.t at the right hand of the speaker, and 
the senators took their seats together in front of the speaker's 
chair. Every member of the house was in his place except one, 
who was known to be sick at his lodgings. The galleries were 
packed with spectators, and the areas were thronged with judges, 
ambassadors, governors of states, and other privileged persons. 
The first business in order was the formal opening of the electoral 
packets, and the formal announcement that Mi-. Calhoun had been 
elected vice-president ; that no one had received a majority of elec- 
toral votes for the presidency, and that the house of representatives 
had then to elect a president from the three highest candidates — 
Jackson, Adams, and Crawford. 

The senators retired. The roll of the house was called by states, 
and the members of each delegation took their seats together. The 
vote of each state was deposited in a box by itself, and placed upon 
tables. The tellers previously appointed, Daniel Webster and John 
Randolph, proceeded to open the boxes and count the ballots. A 
long contest had been expected. The friends of Crawford were 
present in great force, fondly hoping that the house, after weary- 
ing itself by repeated ballotings, would turn to their candidate and 
end the aflair by giving him the election. 

The result, when announced by the tellers, surprised almost every 
one ; surprised many of the best informed politicians who heard it. 
Upon this first ballot, Mr. Adams received tlie vote of thiiteen 
states, which was a majority. Maryland and Illinois, which liad 
given popular majorities for Jackson, voted for Adams. Kentucky, 
Ohio, and Missouri, which had given popular majorities for Clay, 
voted for Adams. Crawford received the vote of four states, Dela- 
ware, North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia. General Jackson, 
for whom eleven states had given an electoral majority, received 
the vote of but seven states in the house. 

When the election of Mr. Adams was announced by Mr. Web- 



1825.] A CANDIL>ATE FOB THE P li E S I D £ xV C Y . 337 

ster, there was a niomentaiy burst of applause from tlie gallei-ies, 
followed by some hissing. The house paused in its proceedings' 
and ordered the galleries to be cleared, and they were cleared ac- 
cordingly. The house adjourned a few minutes afterward, and the 
friends of the different candidates hastened away to congratulate or 
console. 

There was a presidential levee that evening, to which all Wash- 
ington rushed; and there was a pleasant gentleman among the 
throng who has been so obliging, as to tell the world, in hisluost 
agreeable manner, what he saw in the rooms of the White House 
on that occasion. We quote from the " Recollections " of Mr. S. 
G. Goodrich ; 

V " I sJiall pass over other individuals present, only noting an inci- 
dent which respects the two persons in the assembly who, most of 
all others, engrossed the thoughts of the visitors— Mr. Adams the 
elect, General Jackson the defeated. It chanced in the course of 
the evening that these two persons, involved in the throng, ap- 
proached each other from opposite directions, yet without knowing 
It. ^ Suddenly, as they were almost together, the persons around, 
seeing what was to happen, by a sort of instinct stepped aside and 
left them face to face. Mr. Adams was by himself; General Jack- 
son had a large, handsome lady on his arm. They Iqpked at each 
other for a moment, and then General Jackson moved forward, and 
reaching out his long arm, said : ' How do you do, Mr. Adams ? 
I give you my left hand, for the right, as you see, is devoted to the 
fair : I hope you are very well, sir.' All this was gallantly and heartily 
said and done. Mr. Adams took the general's hand, and said, with 
chilling coldness : ' Very well, sir ; I hope General Jackson is well !' 
It was curious to see the western planter, the Indian fighter, the 
stern soldier, who had written his country's glory in the blood of 
the enemy at New Orleans, genial and gracious in the midst of a 
court, while the old courtier and diplqmat was stiff, rigid, cold as 
a statue ! It was all the more remarkable from the fact that, four 
hours before, the former had been defeated, and the latter was the 
victor, in a struggle for one of the highest objects of human ambi- 
tion. The personal character of these two individuals was in fact 
well expressed in that chance meeting : the gallantry, the frankness, 
and the heartiness of the one, which captivated all ; the coldness, 
the distance, the self concentration of the other, which repelled all." 
15 



338 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1825. 

Five days after the election, Mr. Clay wrote a hasty note to his 
friend, Francis Brooke: "Southard remains in the navy depart- 
ment. I am offered that of the state, but liave not yet decided. 
The others not yet determined on. Crawford retires. What shall 
1^0?" " 

We all know what he did. He deliberated a week, consulted 
with friends, and accepted the office. Warnings he had, but he dis- 
regarded them. He evidently knew not what he did, and antici- 
■ pated nothing of what followed. " From the first," be wrote to 
Mr. Crittenden, " I determined to throw myself into the hands of my 
friends, and if they advised me to decline the office, not to accept 
it; but if they thought it was my duty, and for the public interest 
to go into it, to do so. I haxe an unaffected repugnance to ayy ex- 
ecutive employment, and my rejection of the offer, if it were in con- 
formity to their deliberate judgment, would have been more com- 
patible with my feelings than its acceptance. But as their advice 
to me is to accept, I have resolved accordingly, and I have just 
communicated my final determination to Mr. Adams. An oppo- 
sition is talked of here ; but I regard that as the ebullition of the 
moment, the natural offspi-ing of chagrin and disappointment." 

Was General Jackson, indeed, so heartily acquiescent in his de- 
feat as he seemed to be ? Far from it. He was disappointed and 
indignant, believing that he had been defrauded of the presidency 
by a corrupt bargain between Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay. To his 
friend. Major Lewis, five days after the election, he dashed off the 
following note : " I am informed this day, by Colonel R. M. John- 
son, of the seriate, that Mr. Clay has been offered the office of sec- 
retary of state, and that he will accept it. So, you see, the Judas 
of the West has closed the contract and will receive the thirty pieces 
of silver. His end will be the same. Was there ever witnessed 
such a barefaced corruption in any country before ? The senate 
(if this nomination is sent to it) ^vill do its duty. No imputation 
will be left at its door. We will soon be with you. Farewell. 
Mr. Clay told Colonel J. the above." 

In this most erroneous and groundless belief, General Jackson 
lived and died. His partisans took up the cry, and made it the 
chief ground of opposition to Mr. Adams' administration. 



1828. j :;lected president. 339 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

ELECTED PRESIDENT. 

General Jackson was renominated for the presidency by the 
legislature of Tennessee, before Mr. Adams had served one year. 
Tlie general resigned his seat in the senate, and entered heartily 
into the schemes of his fi-iends. His popularity, great as it "was be- 
fore, seemed vastly increased by his late defeat, and by the belief, 
industi'iously promulgated, that he had been cheated of the office to 
which the people desired to elevate him. An active canvass, in his 
behalf, was kept up during the whole of Mr. Adams' term ; and in 
the state of New York, Mr. Van Burcn gave all his influence and 
talents to the general's cause. 

The campaign of 1828 opened with a stunning flourish of trum- 
pets. Loixisiana, like Ncav York, was a doubtful and troublesome 
state. Its scattering vote of 1824 it was highly desirable to con- 
centrate in 1828 ; and it was resolved that enthusiasm should eflTect 
in the southwest what management was accomplishing in New 
York. In 1827 the legislature of Louisiana, which had refused to 
recognize General Jackson's services in 1815, invited him to revisit 
New Orleans, and unite with them in the celebration of the eighth 
of January, 1828, on the scene of his great victory. General Jack- 
son, Avho in 1804 would not call upon his friend Jefferson, lest he 
should seem to be a suitor for the governorship of Louisiana ; Gen- 
eral Jackson, who in 1824 declined to visit Boston, though assured 
that the visit Avould secure his'election to the presidency ; General 
Jackson, who in 1826 Avould not go to the Harrodsburg Springs, 
for fear the object of the journey should be misinterpreted, accepted 
the invitation of the legislature of Louisiana. His blood was up. 
He was resolute to Avin. Congress had been calling up the forgot- 
ten affair of the six militia-men, and the arrests at Ncav Orleans. 
The Eighth of January should reply. 

The reception of General Jackson at New Orleans on this occa- 
sion was, I presume, the most stupendous thing of the kind that 
had ev^' occurred in the L^nited States, and has been snri)nssed 
since that day only by the reception of the orator Kossuth in the 



340 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1828. 

city of New York. Deleg.atious from states as difjtant as New 

York were sent to New Orleans to swell the eclat of the demon- 

stration. 

" The mornhig of the •auspicious day," wrote an eye-witness, 

" dawned upon New Orleans. A thick mist covered the water 

and the land, and at ten o'clock began to rise into clouds ; and 

when the sun at last appeared, it served only to show the darkness 

of the horizon, threatening a storm in the north. It was at that 

.... ' 

moment tlie city became visible, with its steeples and the forest of 

masts rising from the waters. At that instant, too, a fleet of 
steamboats was seen advancing toward the Pocahontas, which had 
now got under way, with twenty-four flags waving over her lofty 
decks. Two stupendous boats, lashed together, led the van. The 
Avhole fleet kept up a constant fire of artillery, which was answered 
from several ships in the harbor and from the shore. General 
Jackson stood on the back gallery of the Pocahontas^ his head un- 
covered, conspicuous to the whole multitude, whicli literally covered 
the steamboats, the shipping, and the surrounding shores. .The 
van which bore the revolutionary soldiers and the remnant of the 
old Orleans battalion passed the Pocahontas, and, rounding to, fell 
down the stream, while acclamations of thousands of spectators 
rang from the river to the woods, and back to the river. 

" In this order the fleet, consisting of eighteen steamboats of the 
first class, passed close to the city, directing their course tow^ard 
the field of battle. When it was first descried, some horsemen 
only, the marshals of the day, had reached the ground. But in a 
few minutes it seemed alive with a vast multitude, brought thither 
on horseback and in carriages, and poured forth from the steam- 
boats. A line was formed by Generals Planche and Labaltat, and 
the conmiittee repaired on board the Pocahontas, in order to 
invite the general to land and meet his brother-soldiers and fellow- 
citizens. I have no words to describe the scene which ensued." 

The rest can be jraagined — the landing at the levee of the city, 
the procession, the banquet, the scenes at the theater. " Mrs. Jack- 
son," adds the chronicler, " who, with several ladies from Tennes- 
see, accompanied her husband, was met and waited upon, the mo- 
ment she landed from the Pocahontas, by Mrs. Marigny, and other 
respectable ladies, Avho, after having congratulated her on tiei- safe 
arrival, conducted her to Mr. Marigny's house, where refreshments 



1828.] ELECTED PRESIDEXT. 341 

had been prepared, and ■where she received the sahitations of a 
large and brilliant circle." The festivities continued four days, at 
the expiration of which the general and his fiiends reembarked on 
board the Pocahontas, and returned homeward. 

The campaign now set in with its usual severity. During the 
rest of the year, the country rang with the names of Jackson and 
Calhoun, Adams and Rush. The contest, durmg this final year, 
becaine one of personalities chiefly. Against Mr. Adams, every 
possible change was rung upon bargain and corruption. He w^s 
accused of federalism, of haughtiness, of selfishness, of extravagant 
expenditures, and, O, crime of crimes ! of polluting the White 
House, that sacred abode of purity and wisdom, with a billiard 
table ! Mr. Adams' son and secretary had actually bought, out of 
his allowance, a billiard table, and set it up in an apartment of the 
presidential mansion. Mr. Adams Avas further accused of being a 
Unitarian ; upon which a statement appeared in the papers, declar- 
ing that the president attended and was a trustee of a Presbyterian 
chiwch, to which he had contributed eighteen hundred dollars. It 
was charged against him, that the East Room, in which his excel- 
lent mother had hung clothes to dry, was now furnished with such 
apj)alling extravagance, that country members were quite ovei'come 
at the spectacle ; and could only relieve their minds by quoting 
Cicero against Catiline — O tempora, O mores ! 

General Jackson was accused of every crime, offense, and impro- 
priety that man was ever known to be guilty of. His whole life 
Avas subject to the severest scrutiny. Every one of his duels, fights, 
and quarrels was narrated at length. His connection with Aaron 
Burr was, of course, a favorite theme. The eleven military execu- 
tions which he had ordered were all recounted. John Binns, of 
Philadelphia, issued a series of hand bills, each bearing the outline 
of a coffin-lid, upon which was printed an inscription recording the 
death of one of these victims. Campaign papers were first started 
this year. One entitled. We the People, and another, called the 
Anti-Jackson Expositor, were particularly prominent. The con- 
duct of General Jackson in Florida during his governorship of that 
territory was detailed. The peculiar circumstances of his marriage, 
long forgotten, were paraded with the grossest exaggerations, to 
the sore grief of good Mrs. Jackson, and to the general's unspeak- 
able wrath. The mother, too, of General Jackson was not permit- 



342 LIFE OF-ANDKEW JACKSOX. [1828. 

ted to rest quietly in hev grave. Mrs. Jackson once found her hus- 
band in tears. Pointing to a paragraph reflecting on his mother, 
he said, " Myself I can defend ; you I can defend ; but now they have 
assailed even the memory of my mother." 

To refute the charges against the general, the famous Tennessee 
" White-washing Committee" was called into existence. Major 
William B. Lewis suggested the measure, and was one of the most 
laborious members of the committee. With regard to the arduous 
labors of the White-washing Committee, they doubtless had their 
effect. But there was a paragraph of two or three lines, which was 
set afloat in the Jackson newspapers in the course of the summer, 
that probably did as much as all their publications, to remove the 
impression made upon the average voter by the case of the six 
militia-men and the executions in Florida. This was the para- 
graph : 

" Cool and Delibeeate Mukder. — Jackson coolly and deliber- 
ately put to death upward of fifteen hundred British troops on the 
8th of January, 1815, on the plains below New Orleans, fo» no 
other offense than that they wished to sup in the city that night." 

This was a crushing and blinding argument. For those who 
could not read it, there was another, which was legible to the most 
benighted intellect. In every village, as well as upon the corners 
of many city streets, was erected a hickory pole. Many of these 
poles were standing as late as 1845, rotten mementos of the de- 
lirium of 1828. 

The number of electoral votes in 1828 was two hundred and 
sixty-one. One hundred and thirty-one was a majority. General 
Jackson received one hundred and seventy-eight ; Mr. Adams, 
eighty-three. With the exception of one electoral district in Maine, 
Messrs. Adams and Rush received the entire vote of New Eng- 
land ; New Hampshire itself, despite the exertions of Isaac Hill, 
voting for them. Of the thirty-six electoral votes cast by the 
state of New York, Adams and Rush obtained sixteen ; Jackson 
and Calhoun, twenty. New Jersey voted entire for Adams and 
Rush ; so did Delaware. In Maryland, the same candidates obtained 
a bare majority — six votes to Jackson's five. In Georgia, Mr. 
Crawford had still influence enough to withdraw seven votes out of 
nine from Mr. Calhoun, and throw them away upon William Smith, 
of South Carolina. The entire vote orGeorgia, however, was given 



1828.] ELECTED PRESIDENT. 343 

to General Jackson, Mr. Crawford more than consenting thereto. 
Every otlier state m the LTuion — Pennsylvania, Viri2,lnia, both Car- 
olina?, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana, Louisiana, AlaVjarna, 
Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois — gave an undivided vote for Jackson 
and Calhoun. For the vice-presidency Mr. Calhoun received one 
hundred and seventy-one votes, out of two hundred and sixty-one. 
There were no scattering or wasted votes except the seven cast for 
William Smith in Georgia. 

In all Tennessee, Adams and Rush obtained less than three thou- 
sand votes. In many towns, every vote was cast for Jackson and 
Calhoun. A distinguished member of the North Carolina legisla- 
ture told me that he happened to enter a Tennessee village in the 
evening of the last day of the presidential election of 1828. He 
found the whole male population out hunting ; the object of the 
chase being two of their fellow-citizens. He inquired by what 
ci'ime these men bad rendered themselves so obnoxious to their 
neighbors, and was informed that they had voted against General 
Jackson. The village, it appeared, had set its heart upon sending 
uj) a unanimous vote for the general, and these two voters had frus- 
trated its desire. As the day wore on, the whisky flowed more 
and more freely, and the result was a universal chase after the two 
voters, with a view to tarring and feathering them. They fled to 
the woods, however, and were not taken. 

The news of General Jackson's election to the presidency, I am 
informed by Major Lewis, created no great sensation at the Her- 
mitage, so certain beforehand were its inmates of a result in accord- 
ance with their desires. Mrs. Jackson quietly said : 

" Well, for Mr. Jackson's sake, I am glad ; for my own part, I 
never wished it." 

The people of Nashville, greatly elated by the success of their 
general, resolved to celebrate it in the way in which they had long 
been accustomed to celebrate every important event in his career. 
A banquet unparalleled should be consumed in honor of his last tri- 
umph. The day appointed for this affair was the twenty-third of 
December, the anniversary of tlifi night battle below New Orleans. 
General Jackson accepted the invitation to be present. Certain In- 
dies of Nashville, meanwhile, were secretly preparing for Mrs. Jack- 
son a magnificent wardrobe, suitable, as they thought, for the adoi'n- 
nient of her person when, as mistress of the White House, she 



344 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1828, 

Avould be deemed the first lady in the nation. She was destined 
never to wear those splendid garments. 

For four or five years the health of Mrs. Jackson had been pre- 
carious. She had complained, 'occasionally, of an uneasy feeling 
about the region of the heart ; and, during the late excitements, she 
had been subject to sharper pains and palpitation. The aspersions 
upon her character had wounded deeply her feelings and her pride. 
She was frequently found in tears. Long esteemed as the kindest 
and most motherly of women, she had of late years been revered by 
a circle of religious ladies as their chief, their guide, their ornament. 
That her name should be ruthlessly dragged into the public prints ; 
that she, a faithful wife of thirty-seven years, should be held up to 
the contempt of the whole country as an adulteress, was more than 
she could endure. It aggravated her disease ; it shortened her 
life. Perhaps, if the truth were known, it would be found that she 
is not the only female victim of our indecent party contentions. 

I learned the story of her death from good *' Old Hannah," the 
faithful servant in whose arms she breathed her last. 

It was a Wednesday morning, December 17th. All was going on 
as usual at the Hermitage. The general was in the fields, at some 
distance from the house, and Mrs. Jackson, apparently in tolerable 
health, was occupied in her household duties. Old Hannah asked 
her to come into the kitchen to give her opinion upon some article 
of food that was in course of preparation. She performed the duty 
required of her, and returned to her usual sitting-room, folloAved by 
Hannah. Suddenly, she uttered a horrible shriek, placed her hands 
. upon her heart, sunk into a chair, struggling for breath, and fell 
forward into Hannah's arms. There were only servants in the 
house ; many of whom ran frantically in, uttering the loud lamen- 
■ tations with which Africans are wont to give vent to their feelings. 
The stricken lady was placed upon her bed, and while messengers 
hurried away for assistance, Hhnnah employed the only remedy she 
knew to relieve the anguish of lier mistress ; " I rubbed her side," 
said the plain-spoken Hannah, " till it was black and blue." 

No relief She writhed in agoi^. She fought for breath. Tlie 
general came in alarmed beyond description. The doctor arrived. 
Mrs. A. J. Donelson hurried in lrom*her house near by. The Her- 
mitage was soon filled with near relatives, friends, and servants. 
With short intervals of partial relief, Mrs. Jackson continued to suf- 



1828.] ELECTED PRESIDEKT. 345 

fer all that a woman could suffer,_ for the space of sixty hours ; dur- 
ing which her husband never left her bedside for ten minutes. On 
Friday evening she was much better ; was almost free from pain ; 
and breathed with far less difficulty. The first use, and, indeed, the 
only use she made of her recovered speech was, to protest to the 
general that she Avas quite well, and to implore him to go to an- 
other room and sleep, and by no means to allow her indisposition 
to prevent his attending the banquet on the 23d. She told him that, 
the day of the banquet would be a very fatiguing one, and he must 
not permit his strength to be reduced by want of sleep. 

Still, the general would not leave her. lie distrusted this sud- 
den relief. He feared it was the relief of torpor or exhaustion ; and 
the more, as the remedies prescribed by Doctor Hogg, the attend- 
ing physician, had not produced their designed eftect. Saturday 
and Sunday passed, and still she lay free from serious pain, but weak 
and listless ; the general still her watchful, constant, almost sleep- 
less attendant. 

On Monday evening, the evening before the 23d, her disease ap- 
peared to take a decided turn for the better ; and she then so earn- 
estly entreated the general to prepare for the fatigues of the mor- 
row by having a night of undisturbed sleep, that he consented, at 
last, to go into an adjoining room and lie down upon a sofa. The 
doctor was still in the house. Hannah and George were to sit up 
with their mistress. 

At nine o'clock, the general bade her good-night, went into the 
next room, and took off his coat, preparatory to lying down. He 
had been gone about five minutes ; Mrs. Jackson was then, for the 
first time, removed from her bed, that it might be rearranged for 
the night. While sitting in a chair supported in the arms of Han- 
nah, she uttered a long, loud, inarticulate cry ; which was imme- 
diately followed by a rattling noise in the throat. Her head fell 
forward upon Hannah's shoulder. She never spoke nor breathed 
again. 

There was a wild rush into the room of husband, doctor, rela- 
tives, friends, and servants. The general assisted to lay her upon 
the bed. " Bleed her," he cried. No blood flowed from her arm. 
" Try the temple, doctor." Two drops stained her cap, but no more 
foIloAred. 

It was long before he would believe her dead. He looked eagerly 
15* 



346 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1828. 

into her face, as if still expecting to see signs of returning life. Her 
hands and feet grew cold. There could be no doubt then, and they 
prepared a table for laying her out. With a choking voice the gew 
eral said : 

" Spread four blankets upon it. If she does come to, she will lie 
so hard upon the table." 

He sat all night long in the room by her side, with his face in his 
hands, " grieving," said Hannah, and occasionally looking into the 
face, and feeling the heart and pulse of the form so dear to him. 
Major Lewis, who had been immediately sent f«r, arrived just 
before daylight, and found him still there, nearly speechless and 
wholly inconsolable. He sat in the room nearly all the next day, 
the picture of despair. It was only with great difficulty that he 
was persuaded to take a littl^ coffee. 

"And this was. the way," concluded Hannah, "that old mistus 
died ; and we always say, that when we lost her, we lost a mistus 
and a mother, too : and more a mother than a mistus. And we say 
the same of old master ; for he was more a father to us than a mas- 
ter, and many's the time we've wished him back again, to help us 
out of our troubles." 

The sad news reached ISTashville early on the morning of the 23d, 
when already the committee of arrangements were busied Avith the 
preparations for the general's reception. " The table was well-nigh 
spread," said one of the papers,, "at which all was expected to be 
hilarity and joy, and our citizens had sallied forth on the morning 
with spirits light and buoyant, and countenances glowing with ani- 
mation and hope, when suddenly the scene is changed : congratu- 
lations are turned into expressions of condolence, tears are substi- 
tuted for smiles, and sincere and general mourning pervades the 
community." 

On the day of the funeral, every vehicle in Nashville w^as em- 
ployed in conveying its inhabitants to the HeTmitage. The grounds 
about the mansion were crowded with people. " Such a scene," 
wrote an eye-witness, " I never wish to witness again. The poor 
old gentleman was supported to the grave by General Coffee and 
Major Rutledge. I never pitied any person more in my life. The 
road to the Hermitage was almost impassable, and an immense 
number of persons attended the funeral. The remains were in- 
terred in the lower part of the garden. I never before saw so much 



1828.] ELECTED PRESIDENT. 341 

affliction among servants on the death of a mistress. Some seemed 
completely stupefied by the eyent ; others wrung tlieir hands and 
shrieked aloud. The woman Avho had waited on T irs. Jackson had 
to be carried off the ground. After the funeral, t'i.e old gentleman 
came up to me, took my hand, and shook it. Some of the gentle- 
men mentioned my name. He again caught my hand, and sqiieezed 
it three times, but all he could utter was, ' Philadelphia.' I never 
shall forget his look of grief." 

The remains of Mrs. Jackson still lie in the corner of the Hermit- 
age garden, next tliose of her husband, in a tomb prepared by him 
in these years for their reception. It resembles, in appearance, an 
open summer-house — a small, \vhite dome supported by pillars of 
white marble. The tablet that covers the remains of Mrs. Jackson 
reads as follows : 

" Here lie the remains of Mrs. Rachel Jackson, wife of President 
Jackson, Avho died the 22d of December, 1828, aged 61. Her 
face was fair ; her person pleasing, her temper amiable, her heart 
kind ; she delighted' in relieving the wants of her fellow-creatures, 
and cultivated that divine pleasure by the most liberal and unpre- 
tending methods ; to the poor she was a benefactor ; to the rich an 
example ; to the wretched a comforter ; to the prosperous an orna- 
ment ; her piety went hand in hand with her benevolence, and she 
thanked her Creator for being permitted to do good. A being so 
gentle and so virtuous, slander might wound but could not dishonor. 
Even death, when he tore her from the arms of her husband, could 
but transport her to the bosom of her God." 

General Jackson never recovered from the shock of his wife's death. 
He was never quite the same man afterward. It subdued his spirit 
and corrected his speech. Except on occasions of extreme excitement, 
few, and far between, he never again used what is commonly called 
" profjjne language ;" not even the familiar phras e, " By the Eter 
nal." There were times, of course, when his fiery passions asserted 
themselves ; when he uttered wrathful words ; when he wished even 
to throw off the I'obes of office, as he once said, that he might call 
his enemies to a dear account. But these were rare occurrences. 
He mourned deeply and ceaselessly the loss of his truest friend, and 
was often guided, in his domestic affairs, by what he supposed would 
have been her will if she had been there to make it known. 



848 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829. 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

INAUGURATION —MRS. EATON. 

There was no time for mourning. Haggard with grief and 
watching, " twenty years older in a night," as one of his friends 
remarked, the president-elect was compelled to enter without delay 
upon the labor of preparing for his journey to Washington. His 
inaugural address was written at tlie house of Major Lewis, near 
Nashville. But one slight alteration was made in this document 
after the general reached the seat of government. Before leaving 
home, the general drew up a series of rules for the guidance of his 
administration, one of which was, that no member of his cabinet 
shoidd be his successor. General Jackson left home resolved to do 
right in his high office. Whether he ruled wisely or the contrary, 
it is certain that he left the grave of his wife determined, in his in- 
most, soul, to stand by the people of the United States, and admin- 
ister the government with a single eye to their good. But woe to 
those who had slandered and killed that wife ! These two feelings 
had no struggle for mastery in his peculiarly constituted nature. In 
him they were one and the same. 

The party left Nashville on a Sunday afternoon about the mid- 
dle of January. The journey to Washington — every one knows 
what it must have been. The complete, the instantaneous acquies- 
cence of the people of the United States in the decision of a consti- 
tutional majority — ^a redeeming feature of our politics — was well 
illustrated on this occasion. The steamboat that conveyed the 
general and his party down the Cumberland to the Oiiio and 
up the Ohio to Pittsburg, a voyage of several days, was saluted 
or cheered as often as it passed a human habitation. At Cincinnati, 
it seemed as if all Ohio, and, at Pittsburg, as if all Pennsylvania, 
had rushed forth to shout a welcome to the president-elect. In- 
deed, the whole country appeared to more than acquiesce in the 
result of the election 

The day of the inuaguration was one of the brightest and balmiest 
of the spring. Mr. Webster, in his comic manner, remarks : " I 
never saw such a crov/d here bc-fore. Persons have come five hun- 



1829.] INAUGURATION. — MRS. EATON. 349 

tired miles to see General Jackson, and they really seem to think 
that, the country is rescued from so7ne dreadful danger!'''' The 
ceremony over, the president drove from the capitol to the White 
House, followed soon by a great part of the crowd who had wit- 
nessed the inauguration. Judge Story, a strenuous Adams man, 
did not enjoy the scene which the apartments of the " palace," as 
he styles it, presented on this occasion. " After the ceremony was 
over," he wrote, " the president went to the palace to receive com- 
pany, and there he was visited by immense crowds of all sorts of 
people, from the highest and most polished, down to the most vul- 
gar and gross in tlie nation. I ne*^er saw such a mixture. The 
reign of King Mob seemed triumphant. I was glad to escape from 
the scene as soon as possible." A letter-writer said : " A profu- 
sion of refreshments had been provided. Orange punch by barrels 
full was made ; but as the waiters opened the door to bring it out, 
a rush would be made, the glasses broken, the pails of liquor up- 
set, and the most painful confusion prevailed. To such a painful 
degree was this carried, that wine and ice-creams could not be 
brought out to the ladies, and tubs of punch Avere taken from the 
lower story into the garden, to lead oft' the crowd from the rooms. 
On such an occasion it was certainly difficult to keep any thing like 
order, but it. was mortifying to see men, with boots heavy with mud, 
standing on the damask satin covered chairs, from their eagerness 
to get a sight of the president." 

So little was known of General Jackson's intentions with regard 
to cabinet appointments that some of the members of the cabinet 
of Mr. Adams were actually in doubt whether they ought to resign 
or not. Mr. Wirt, the attorney-general, wrote to Mr. Monroe, 
askiug his opinion on the point. Mr. Monroe advised him to re- 
sign, but added, that, in all probability, the new president would 
desire to retain the services of an officer who, for twelve years, had 
discharged the duties of his place to universal acceptance. So well 
did General Jackson keep his secret, that no man in or out of 
Washington, except the chosen few, knew who would compose the 
new administration, until the general, with his own hands, gave to 
the editor of the Telegraph the list for publication. It appeared in 
the official newspaper on the 26th of February. It would not even 
then have seen the light but for the secret opposition made to one 
of the appointments. 



350 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829. 

Soou after General Jackson arrived at the seat of government, 
he informed Edward Livingston, of Louisiana, that Mr. Van Buren 
was the foreordained secretary of state of the incoming administra- 
tion, and offered him the choice of the seats remaining. Mr. Living- 
ston, just then elected to the senate, preferred his senatorship to 
any office in the government except the one already appropriated. 

In distributing the six great offices, General Jackson assigned two 
to the north, two to the west, and two to the south. 

Mr. Van Buren accej)ted the first place without hesitation, re- 
signed the governorship of New York after holding it seventy days, 
and entered upon his duties at Washington three Aveeks after the 
inauguration. 

Samuel D. Ingham, of Pennsylvania, was appointed to the second 
place in the cabinet, that of secretary of the treasury. Mr. Ingham 
came of a sturdy Bucks county Quaker family, a thriving, industri- 
ous race, settled there for four generations. His father, a physician, 
farmer, and clothier, was also a devotee of classical learning, and a 
dissenter from the tenets of the broad-brimmed sect. His son, 
Samuel, showing no great inclination for classical knowledge, was ap- 
prenticed to a paper-maker, and, in due time, set up a paper-mill 
on the paternal farm, which proved a successful venture. From the 
peaceful pursuits of business he was drawn away gradually into the 
whirl of politics. 

John H. Eaton, senator from Tennessee, was appointed secretary 
of war. General Jackson was, from the first, determined to have 
in his cabinet one of his own Tennessee circle of friends, and Mr. 
Eaton was the one selected. 

The navy department was assigned to John Branch, for many 
years a senator from North Carolina. 

John McPherson Berrien, of Georgia, was ajDpointed attorney- 
general. Mr. Berrien was born and educated in New Jersey, grad- 
uating at Nassau Hall, but was admitted to the bar in Georgia, 
where he rose to great and merited eminence as a lawyer, judge, 
and legislator. 

William T. Barry, of Kentucky, was apj^ointed postmaster-gen- 
eral. Elected to Congress at the age of twenty-seven, Mr. Barry 
had been in public life for twenty years ; chiefly, however, in state 
offices. 

Such, then, was the first cabinet of the new president. With the 



1829.] INAUGURATION. — MRS. EATON. 351 

exeej)tion of Mr. Van Buren, its members had no great influence 
over the measures of their chief, and play no great part in the gen- 
eral history of the times. 

No sooner had General Jackson announced the names of the gen- 
tlemen who were to compose his cabinet, than an opposition to one 
of them manifested itself of a peculiar and most virulent character. 
Mr. Eaton, the president's friend and neighbor, was the object of 
this opposition, the grounds of which must be particularly stated, 
for it led to important results. 

A certain William O'Neal kept at "Washington for many years a 
large old-fashioned tavern, where members of Congress, in consider- 
able numbers, boarded during the sessions of the national legisla- 
ture. William O'Neal had a daughter, sprigTitly and beautiful, 
who aided him and his wife in entertaining his boarders. It is not 
good for a girl to grow up in a large tavern. Peg O'Neal, as she 
was called, was so lively in her deportment, so free in her conver- 
sation, that, had she been born twenty years later, she would have 
been called one of the " fast" girls of Washington. A witty, pretty, 
saucy, active tavern-keeper's daughter, who makes free with the 
inmates of her father's house, and is made free with by them, may 
escape contamination, but not calumny. 

When Major Eaton first came to Washington as a senator of the 
United States, in the year 1818, he took board at Mr. O'Neal's 
tavern, and continued to reside there every winter for ten years. 
He became acquainted, of course, with the family, including the 
vivacious and attractive Peg. When General Jackson came to the 
city as senator in 1823, he also went to live with the O'Neals, 
whom he had known in Washington before it had become the seat 
of government. For Mrs. O'Neal, who was a remarkably efficient 
woman, he had a particular respect. .Even during his presidency, 
when he was supposed to visit no one, it was one of his favorite 
relaxations, when worn out with business, to stroll Avith Major 
Lewis across the " old fields" near Washington to the cottage where 
Mrs. O'Neal lived in retirement, and enjoy an hour's chat with the 
old lady. Mrs. Jackson, also, during her residence in Washington 
in 1825, became attached to the good Mrs. O'Neal and to her 
daughter. 

In the course of time Miss O'Neal became the wife of purser 
Timberlake of the United States Navy, and the mother of two 



352 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [lS29. 

children. In 1828 came the news that Mr. Timberlake, then on 
duty in the Mediterranean, had cut his throat in a fit of melancholy, 
induced, it Avas said, by previous intoxication. On hearing this in- 
telligence. Major Eaton, then a widower, felt an inclination to marry 
Mrs. Timberlake, for whom he had entertained an attachment quite 
as tender as a man could lawfully indulge for the wife of a friend 
and brother-mason. He took the precaution to consult General 
Jackson on the subject. "Why, yes, major," said the general, "if 
you love the woman, and she will have you, marry her by all means." 
Major Eaton mentioned what the general well knew, that Mrs. 
Timberlake's reputation in Washington had not escaped reproach, 
and that Major Eaton himself was supposed to have been too inti- 
mate with her. " Vf ell," said the general, " your marrying her will 
disprove these charges, and restore Peg's good name." And so, per- 
haps, it might, if Major Eaton had not been taken into the cabinet. 

Eaton and Mrs. Timberlake Avere married in Jamiary, 1829, a 
fcAV Aveeks before General Jackson arrived at the seat of govern- 
ment. As soon as it was whispered about Washington that Major 
Eaton was to be a member of the new cabinet, it occurred Avith great 
force to the minds of certain ladies, A\'ho supposed thcmseh'es to be 
at the head of society at the capital, that, in that case, Peg O'Neal 
would be the Avife of a cabinet minister, and, as such, entitled to 
admission into their OAvn sacred circle. Horrible to contemplate ! 
Forbid it, morality ! Forbid it, decency ! Forbid it. General 
Jackson ! ' 

Among those Avho were scandalized at the appointment of Major 
Eaton was the Rev. J. N. Campbell,' pastor of the Presbyterian 
church in Washington, which the general and Mrs. Jackson had 
both attended, and Avhich, it Avas supposed. President Jackson 
Avould attend. Not caring ^to speak Avith the general himself on 
the subject, Mr. Cami^bell communicated the ill things he had heard 
of Mrs. Eaton to the Hew E. S. Ely, of Philadelphia, who had known 
General Jackson in his mercantile days, and had come to Washing- 
ton to Avitness the inauguration of his old friend. Dr. Ely desired 
to converse Avith General Jackson on the subject, but finding no 
opportunity to do so in Washington, Avrote t^ the general, after his 
return to Philadelphia, a very long letter, in Avhich he detailed all 
the charges he had heard against Mrs. Eaton. He informed the 
president that she had borne a bad reputation in Washington from 



1829.] I^"AUGURATION. — MRS. EATON. 353 

her girlhood ; that the ladies of Washington Avoiild not speak to 
iier ; that a gentleman, at the table of Gadsby's Hotel, Avas said to 
have declared that he personally knew her to be a dissolute woman ; 
that Mrs. Eaton had told her servants to call her children Eaton, 
not Timberlake, for Eaton Avas their rightful name ; that a clergy- 
man of Washington had told Dr. Ely, that a deceased physician 
had told him, that Mrs. Timberlake had had a miscarriage when 
her husband had been absent a year; that the friends ol* Major 
Eaton had pursuaded him to board elsewhere, for the sake of get- 
ting him away from Mrs. Timberlake ; that Mrs. Jackson herself 
. had entertained the worst opinion of Mrs. Timberlake ; that Major 
Eaton and Mrs. Timberlake had traveled together, and recorded 
their names on hotel registers as man and w^fe, in New York and • 
elsewhere. 

For your own sake, said the reverend doctor, for your dead wife's 
sake, for the sake of your administration, for the credit of the gov- 
ernment and the country, you should not countenance a woman 
like this. 

This letter was dated March 18th, 1829. General Jackson re- 
plied to it immediately, and in a manner peculiarly characteristic. 
He told the reverend doctor that, with regard to many of the 
charges against the lady, he, the president, knew them to be false, 
and he believed them all to be. Dr. Ely replied. He was glad to 
learn, he said, that the president was so sure of Mrs. Eaton's inno- 
cence, and expressed a hope, that if she had done wrong in past 
times, she would now be restored by repentance to the esteem of 
the virtuous. Dr. Ely was, evidently, not quite convinced of Mi"s. 
Eaton's immaculate purity. The president hastened to renew his 
efforts in her defense. He wrote again and again to his reverend 
friend, and these letters, long and vehement as they are, convey but 
a faint idea of the interest felt by General Jackson in the vindica- 
tion of the lady. He sent a gentleman to New York to investigate 
the hotel register story. He wrote so many letters and statements 
in relation to this business that Major Lewis, who lived in the White 
House, was worn out with the nightly toil of copying. The entire 
mass of the secret and confidential Avritings relating to Mrs. Eaton, 
all dated in the summer and autumn of 1829, and most of them 
originally in General Jackson's hand, would fill about eighty- 
five of these images. And besides these, theie Avas a large number 



354 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1829. 

of papers and (iocuments not deemed important enough for preser- 
vation. General Jackson, indeed, made the cause his own, and 
brought to the defense of Mrs. Eaton all the fire aiid resolution 
with which, forty years before, he had silenced every whisper 
against Mrs. Jackson. Pie considered the cases of the two ladies 
parallel. His zeal in behalf of Mrs. -Eaton was a manifestation or 
consequence of his wrath against the calumniators of his wife. 

Will it be believed, that, at length, the president of the United 
States brought this matter before his cabinet ? The membei'S of 
the cabinet having assembled one day in the usual place, Dr. Ely 
and Mr. Campbell were brought before them, when the president 
endeavored to demonstrate that Mrs. Eaton was " as chaste as 
snow." Whether the efforts of the jDresident had or had not the 
effect of convincing the ladies of Washhigton that Mrs. Eaton was 
worthy of admission into their circle, shall in due time be related. 
Upon a point of that nature ladies are not convinced easily. Mean- 
while, the suitors for presidential favor are advised to make them- 
selves visible at the lady's receptions. A card in Mrs. Eaton's card 
basket, is not unlikely to be a winning card. 



CHAPTER XXXm. 

■ TERROR AMONG 1:HE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 

It is delightful to observe with what a scrupulous conscientious- 
ness the early presidents of this republic disposed of the places in 
their gift. Washington set a noble example. He demanded to be 
satisfied on three points with regard to an applicant for office : Is 
he honest ? Is he capable ? Has he the confidence of his fellow- 
citizens ? Not till these questions were satisfactorily answered did 
he deign to inquire respecting the political opinions of a candidate. 
Private friendship between the president and an applicant was ab- 
solutely an obstacle to his appointment, so fearful was the president 
of being swayed by private motives. " My friend," he says, in one 
of his letters, " I receive with cordial welcome. He is welcome to 
my house, and welcome to my heart ; but with all his good qualities 



1829.] TERROR AMONG OFFICE-HOLDERS. 355 

ho is not a man of business. His opponent, with all his politics so 
hostile to me, is a man of business. My private feelings have noth- 
ing to do in the case. I am not George Washington, but president 
of the United States. As George \Vashington, I would do this 
man any kindness in my power — as president of the United States, 
I can do nothing." • 

If General Washington would not appoint a friend because he 
was a friend, nor a partisan because he was a partisan, still less was 
he capable of removing an enemy because he Avas an enemy, or an 
opponent because he was an opponent. During his administration 
of eight years, he removed nine persons from office ; naniely,^ix 
unimportant collectors, one district surveyor, one vice-consul, and 
one foreign minister. We all know that he recalled Mr. Pinckney 
from Paris because that consftwative gentleman was oifensive to 
the French Directory. The other dismissals were all " for cause." 
Politics had nothing to do with one of them. 

The example of General Washington was followed by his suc- 
cessors. John Adams doubted, even, whether it was strictly prop- 
er for him to retain his son in a foreign .emjjloyment to which 
President Washington had appointed him. He removed nine sub- 
ordinate officers during his presidency ; but none for political opin- 
ion's sake. Jefferson, owing to peculiar circumstances well known 
to readers of history, removed thirty-nine persons ; but he himself 
repeatedly and solemnly declared, that not one of them was re- 
moved because he belonged to the party opposed to his own. The 
contrary imputation he regarded in the light of a calumny, and re- 
futed it as such. In one respect Mr. Jefferson was even over-scru- 
puloub. He would not appoint any man to office, however merito- 
rious, who was a relative of his own. Mr. Madison made five re- 
movals ; Mr. Monroe, nine ; Mr. John Quincy Adams, two, Mr. 
Calhoun tells us, that during the seven years that he held the office 
of secretary of war, only two of his civil subordinates were removed, 
both for improper conduct. In both cases, he adds, the charges 
were investigated in the presence of the accused, and " the officers 
were not dismissed until after full investigation, and the reason of 
dismission reduced to writing and communicated to them." Colonel 
McKenney mentions, in his " Memoirs," that when a vacancy oc- 
curred in one of the departments, the chief of that department 
would inquire among his friends for " a qualified " person to fill it. 



356 LIFE OF A:N^DKE\V JACKSON. [1829. 

Up to the hour of the delivery of General Jackson's inaugural 
address, it was supposed that tlie new j^resideut would act upon the 
principles of his predecessors. In his former letters he had taken 
strong ground against partisan appointments, and when he resigned 
his seat in the senate he had advocated two amendments to the con- 
stitution dQgigned to limit and purify the exercise of the appointing 
power. One of these proposed amendments forbade the reelection 
of a president, and the other the appointment of members of Con- 
gress to any office not judicial. 

The sun had not gone down upon the day of his inauguration be- 
fore it was known in all official circles in Washington that the " re- 
form," alluded to in the inaugural address, meant a removal from 
office of all who had conspicuously opposed, and an appointment to 
office of those who had conspicuoufly aided the election of the new 
president. The work was prom^^tly begun. Figures are not im- 
portant here, and the figures relating to this matter have been dis- 
puted. Some have declared that during the first year of the presi- 
dency of General Jackson two thousand persons in the civil employ- 
ment of the government were removed from office, and two thousand 
partisans of the president appointed in their stead. This statement 
has been denied. It can not be denied that in the first month of 
this administration more removals were made than had occurred 
from the foundation of the government to uhat time. It can not be 
denied that the principle was now acted upon that partisan services 
should be rewarded by public office, though it involved the removal 
from office of competent and faithful incumbents. Colonel Benton 
will not be suspected of overstating the facts respecting the remo- 
vals, but he admits that their number, during this year, 1829, w^as 
six hundred and ninety. He expresses himself on this subject with 
less than his usual directness. His estimate of six hundred and 
ninety does not include the little army of clerks and others who 
were at the disposal of some of the six hundred and ninety. Tlie 
estimate of two thousand includes all w^ho lost their places in con- 
sequence of General Jackson's accession to power ; and, thoiigh the 
exact number can not be ascertained, I presume it was not less than 
two thousand. Colonel Benton says that of the eight thousand post- 
masters, only four hundred and ninety-one wer6 removed ; but he 
does not add, as he might have added, that the four hundred and 
ninety-one vacated places comprised nearly all in the department 



1829.] TKEROR AMONG THE OFFICE-HOLDERS. 357 

that were worth having. Nor does he mention that the removal of 
the postmasters of half a dozen great cities Avas equivalent to the 
removal of many hundreds of clerks, book-keepers, and carriers. 

Terror reigned in Washington. No man knew Avhat the rule 
was upon which removals were made. No man knew what offenses 
were reckoned causes of removal, nor whether he had or had not 
committed the unpardonable sin. The great body of officials awaited 
their -fate in silent horror, glad when the office hours expired at 
having escaped another day. " The gloom of suspicion," says Mr. 
Stansbury, himself an office-holder, " pervaded the face of society. 
No man deemed it safe and prudent to trust his neighbor, and the 
interior of the department presented a fearful* scene of guarded 
silence, secret intrigue, espionage, and talebearing. A casual i*e- 
mark, dropped in the street, would within an hour, be repeated at 
head-quarters ; and many a man received unceremonious dismission 
who could not, for his life, conceive or conjecture wherein he had 
offended." " 

At that period, it must be remembered, to be removed from office 
in the city of Washington was like being driven from the solitary 
spring in a wide expanse of desert. The public treasury was almost 
the sole source of emolument. Salaries were small, the expenses 
of living high, and few of the officials had made provision for en- 
gaging in private business or even for removing their families to 
another city. No one had anticipated a necessity of removal. 
Clerks, appointed by the early presidents, had grown gray in the 
service of the government, and were so habituated to the routine 
of their places, that, if removed, they were beggared and heli)Iess. 

As a general rule, the dismission of officers was sudden and 
unexplained. Occasionally, however, some reason was assigned. 
Major Eaton, for example, dismissed the chief clerk of the war de- 
partment in the terms following: "Major : The chief clerk of 

the department should to his principal stand in the relation of a 
confidential friend. Under this belief, I have appointed Dr. Ran- 
dolph, of Vii-ginia. I take leave to say, that since I have been in 
this department, nothing in relation to you nas trans}fired to which 
I would take the slightest objection, nor have I any to suggest." 

These facts will suffice to show that the old system of appointments 
and removals was changed, upon the accession of General Jackson, 
to the one in vogue ever since, Avhich Governor Marcy coinpletely 



358 



LIFE OF A N r» K E TV JACKSON, Fl 829. 



and aptly described when he said that to the victors belong the 
spoils. Some of the consequences of this change are the following: 

I. The government, formerly served by the elite of the nation, 
is now served, to a very considerable extent, by its refuse. That, 
at least, is the tendency of the new system, because men of intelli- 
gence, ability, and virtue, universally desire to fix their affiiirs on a 
basis of permanence. It is the nature of such men to make each 
year do something for all the years to come. It is their nature 
to abhor the arts by which office is now obtained and retained. In 
the year of our Lord 1859, the fact of a man's holding office under 
the government is presumptive evidence that he is one of three 
characters, namely, an adventurer, an incompetent person, or a 
scoundrel. From this remark must be excepted those who hold 
offices that have never been subjected to the spoils system, or offices 
which have been " taken out of politics." 

II. The new system places at the disposal of any administration, 
however corrupt, a horde of creatures in every town and county, 
bound, body and soul, to its defence and continuance. 

III. It places at the disposal of any candidate for the presidency, 
who has a slight prospect of success, another horde of creatures in 
every town and county, bound to support his pretensions. I once 
knew an apple-w^oman in Wall Street who had a personal interest 
in the election of a president. If /;er candidate gained the day, her 
" old man " w^ould get tlie place of porter in a public warehouse. 
The circle of corruption embraces hundreds of thousands. 

IV. The spoils system takes from the government employe 
those motives to fidelity which, in private life, are found uni\ersally 
necessary to secure it. As no degree of merit whatever can secure 
him in his place, he must be a man of heroic virtue who does not 
act upon the principle of getting the most out of it while he holds 
it. Whatever fidelity may be found in office-holders must be set 
down to the credit of unassisted human virtue. 

In a word, the sjioils system renders pure, decent, orderly, and 
democratic government impossible. Nor has any government of 
modern times given sucli a wonderful proof of inherent strength as 
is afforded by tlie fact that this government, after thirty years of 
rotation, still exists. 

The spoils system, we may hope, however, has nearly run its 
course. ' It is already well understood that every service in which 



■%.'■ 



1829.] BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. 359 

efficiency is indispensable must be taken out of politics ; and this 
process, happily begun in some departments of municipal gOA'ern- 
ment, will assuredly continue. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE BAXK OF THE UNITED STATES. 

At the beginning of the administration of General Jackson, the 
Bank of the United States was a truly imposing institution. Its 
capital was thirty-five millions. The public money deposited in its 
vaults averaged six or seven millions ; its private deposits, six mil- 
lions more ; its circulation, twelve millions ; its discoimts, more than 
forty millions a year ; its annunl profits, more than three millions. 
Besides the parent bank at Philadelphia Avith its marble palace and 
hundi-ed clerks, there were twenty-five branches in the towns and 
cities of the Union, each of which had its president, cashier, and 
board of directors. The employes of the bank were more than 
five hundred in number, all men of standing and influence, all lib- 
ei-ally salaried. In eA^ery county of the Union, in every nation on 
the globe, Avere stockholders of the Bank of the United States. 
One-fifth of its stock was owned by foreigners. One-fourth of 
its stock was held by women, orj>hans, and the trustees of charity 
funds -*so high, so unquestioned Avas its credit. Its bank-notes were 
as good as gold in every part of the country. From Maine to 
Georgia, from Georgia to Astoria, a man could travel and pass 
these notes at every point without discount. Nay, in London, Paris, 
Rome, Cairo, Calcutta, St. Petersburgh, the notes of the Bank of 
the United States were worth a fraction mcu'e or a fraction less 
than their value at home, according to the current rate of exchange. 
They could usually be sold at a premium at the remotest commer- 
cial centers. It Avas not uncommon for the stock of the bank to 
be sold at a premium of forty per cent. The directors of this bank 
Avere tAventy-five in numbei", of Avhom five were appointed by the 
President of the United States. The bank and its branches receiv- 
ed and disbursed the entire revenue of the nation. 



360 LIFE OF ANDEEAV JACKSON. [1829. 

At tlie liead of tliis great establishment was the once renowned 
Nicholas Biddle. To his pen Mr. Biddle owed his conspicuous po- 
sition!" A graduate of Princeton — a student of law in Philadelphia 
— secretary of legation in Paris, first under General Armstrong, 
then under Mr. Monroe — afterward Philadelphia lawyer and editor 
of a literary magazine — author of the "Commercial Digiest," pre- 
pared at the request of President Monroe — unsuccessful candidate 
for Congress. In 1819, Mr. Monroe appointed him government 
director of the Bank of the United States, in which office he ex- 
hibited so much vivacity and intelligence, that, in 1823, he was 
elected president of the institution by an unanimous vote. It was a 
pity. Mr. Biddle was a man of the pen — quick," graceful, fluent, 
honorable, generous, but not practically able ; not a man for a 
stormy sea and a lee shore. The practically able man is not fluent of 
tongue or pen. The man who can not, to save his soul, sell a cargo 
of cotton at a profit, is your man to write brilliant articles on the 
cotton trade. In ordinary times, Mr. Biddle would have doubtless 
been able to retain his title of the Emperor Nicholas, of which he 
was a little vain, and to conduct his bank along the easy path with 
general applause. But he fell upon evil days, aiicl the pen that 
made him ruined him. 

He was one of those charioteers with whose magnificent driving- 
no fault can be' found, except that, at last, it upsets the coach. 
How many such charioteers there are in this world ! 

Tliere is a tradition in Washington to this day, that General 
Jackson came up from Tennessee to Washington, in 1829, resolved 
on the destruction of the Bank of the United States, and that he 
Avas only dissuaded from aiming a paragraph at it in his inaugural 
address by the prudence of Mr. Van Buren. No less distinguished 
a person than Mr. Bancroft has fallen into this error. 

General Jackson had no thought of the bank until he had been 
j)resident two month*. He came to Washington expecting to serve 
but a single term, during which the question of rechartering the 
bank was not expected to come uj). The bank was chartered in 
181G for twenty years, which would not expire until 1836, three 
years after General Jackson hoped to be at the Hermitage once 
more, never to leave it. The first intercourse, too, between the 
bank and tlie new administration was in the highest degree courteous 
and agreeable. A large payment was to be made of the public debt 



1829.] BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. 361 

early in the summei', and the manner in which the hank managed 
that affair, at some loss and much inconvenience to itself, but greatly 
to the advantage of the public and to the credit of the government, 
won from the secretary of the treasury a warm enlogiuui. 

But while this affair was going on so pleasantly, trouble was brew- 
ing in another quarter. Isaac Hill, from New Hampshire, then 
second controller of the treasury, was a great man at the White 
House. , He had a grievance. Jeremiah Mason, one of the three 
great lawyers of New England, a federalist, a friend of Daniel Web- 
ster and of Mr, Adams, had been appointed to the presidency of 
the branch of the United States Bank at Portsmouth, New Hamp- 
shire — much to the disgust of Isaac Hill and other Jackson men of 
that little state. Is?iac Hill desired the removal of Mr. Mason and 
the appointment in his place of a gentleman who Avas a friend of the 
new administration. 

Mr. Hill caused petitions to be addressed to the directors of the 
bank, in which Mr. Mason was accused of partiality, haughtiness, 
mismanagement, and his removal demanded. Mr. Biddle went him- 
self to Portsmouth, where he spent six days in investigating the 
charges, and satisfied hinjself that they were groundless. He in- 
formed the secretary of the treasury, who had addressed him on the 
subject, that the directors would not remove a faithful servant for 
l)oiitical reason^. He added passages like this : " I deem it my duty 
to state to you in a manner perfectly respectful to your official and 
personal character, yet so clear as to leave no possibility of miscon- 
ception, that the board of directors of the Bank of the United 
States, and the boards of directors of the branches of the Bank of 
the United States, acknowledge not the slightest responsibility of 
any description whatsoever to the secretary of the treasury touching 
the political opinions and conduct of their officers, that being a sub- 
ject on which they never consult, and never desire to know, the views 
of any administration. It is with much reluctance the board of 
directors feel themselves constrained to make this declaration. But 
chra-ged as they are by Congress with duties of great importance to 
tlie country, which they can hope to execute only while they are 
exempted from all influences not authorized by the laws, they deem 
it most becoming to themselves, as well as to the executive, to state 
with perfect frankness their opinion of any interference in the con- 
cerns of the institution confided to their care." 
16 



3t5i LIFE OF ANDBEW JACKSON. [1829. 

So the Bank of the United States triumphed over Isaac Hill and 
the administration. It was a dear victory. 

The reader lias perused the previous pages of this work to little 
purpose, if he does not know what effect upon the mind of the pres- 
ident the bank's calm defiance was certain to produce. Before the 
next month closed, the editors of the New York Courier and Mn- 
•qrdrer received a confidential hint from Washington, that the forth- 
coming presidential message would take ground against the Bank 
of the United States. So says Mr. James Gordon Bennett, avIio 
was then the active working man of that great newspaper. 

" For a considerable time," says Mr. Bennett, " after I joined the 
Courier and Enquirer in 1829, and the greater portion of which 
journal I then wrote with my own hand — and tip to the year 1830, 
it presented no particular hostility to the United States Bank. I 
think it was in the month of November, 1829, when M. M. Noah 
was surveyor of the port, that in going to his office one day, I found 
him reading a letter which he had just received from Amos Keiidall, 
and which informed him that ground would be taken against the 
bank by General Jackson in the message to be delivered the next 
month on the opening of Congress. On the same day, a portion of 
Aiuos Kendall's letter, with a head and tail put to it, was sent over 
to the Courier office, and published as an editorial next morning." 

Accordingly, near the close of the new president's first message, 
was the famous passage which sounded the first note of war against 
the United States Bank : " The charter of the Bank of the United 
States expires in 1836, and its stockholders will most probably ap- 
ply for a renewal of their privileges. In order to avoid the evils 
resulting from precijiitancy in a measure involving such important 
principles, and such deep pecuniary interests, I feel that I cannot, 
in justice to the parties interested, too soon present it to the delib- 
erate consideration of the legislature and the people. Both the 
constitutionality and the expediency of the law creating this bank 
are well questioned by a large portion of our fellow-citizens ; and it 
must be admitted by all, that it has failed in the great end of estab- 
lishing a uniform and sound currency. Under these circumstances, 
if such an institution is deemed essential .to the fiscal operations of 
the government, I submit to the wisdom of the legislature whether 
a. national one, founded, upon the credit of the government and its 
revenues, might not be devised, which would avoid all constitutional 



1830.] CONGRESS IN SESSION. 3G3 

difficulties ; and, at the same time, secure all the advantages to the 
govei'nnient and country which were expected to result from the 
present bank." 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

CONGRESS IN SESSION. 

General Jackson prepared his messages very much as the 
editor of a metropolitan journal "gets up" his thundering leaders; 
only not quite so expeditiously. He used to begin to think about 
his message three or four months before the meeting of Congress. 
Whenever he had " an idea," he would make a brief memoran- 
dum of it on any stray piece of paper that presented itself, and put 
it into his capacious white hat for safe keeping. By the time it 
became necessary to put the document into shape he Avould have a 
large accumulation of these memoranda ; some of them consisting of 
a few words on the margin of a newspaper, and some of a page or two 
of foolscap. These were all confided to the hands of Major Donelson, 
the president's private secretary, whose duty it was to write them 
out into orderly and correct English. Thus was formed the basis 
of the message, to which the members of the cabinet added each 
his proportion. It is not difficult, in reading over the volume of 
General Jackson's messages, to detect the traces of the general's 
own large steel pen. 

Congress met on the seventh of December. Such was the 
strength of the administration in the house of representatives,- that 
Andrew Stephenson was reelected to the speakership by one hun- 
dred and fifty-two votes out of one hi?ndred and ninety-one. This 
Congress, however, came in with the administration, and had been 
elected when General Jackson was elected. 

The message, erigerly looked for, as a first message always is, 
Avas delivered on the day following that of the organization of the 
house. A calm deliberateness of tone marked this important paper. 
If any where tlie hand of the chief was particularly apparent, it^^s 
where, on opening the subject of the foreign relations, in the midst 



364 T. IFK OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830. 

of friendly declarations and confident hopes of a peaceful settlement 
of all ]>oints in dispute, the president observed that, the country- 
being blessed Avith every thing which constitutes national strength, 
he should ask nothing of foreign governments that was not right, 
and submit to nothing that was wrong ; flattering himself, he said, 
that, aided by the intelligence and patriotism of the people, we 
shall be able to cause all our just rights to be respected. After 
this Jacksonian ripple, the message flowed on with Van Buren 
placidity to its close. 

The debates began. No ]:)resident ever watched the proceedings 
of Congress with more attention than President Jackson. Nothing 
escaped him. No matter to how late an hour of the night the de- 
bates were protracted, he never went to sleep till Major Lewis or 
Major Donelson came from the capitol and told him what had been 
said and done there. We must note such events of the session as 
were of particular interest to him. 

The proceedings of the senate were the first to kindle the presi- 
dent's ire. The senate was not so disposed to confirm as the presi- 
dent had been to appoint. The executive sessions, that had pre- 
viously been so short and so harmonious, were now protracted and 
exciting. Sometimes the senate was engaged for several days 
(once five days) in succession in the single business of confirming 
the nominations that Avere sent in from the presidential mansion. 
Some of the nominations were in the senate for several months with- 
out being reached. 

Although the proceedings in executive session are secret, many 
of the senate's executive acts during this session were such as could 
not be concealed. A large number of the nominations were op- 
posed, and several, upon which the president had set his heart, 
Avere rejected. The most remarkable case of rejection Avas that of 
Isaac Hill. It Avas also the one that gave the president the deep- 
est ofiense, and which he aA'enged most promptly and most strik- 
ingly. The pretext for Mr. Hill's rejection was, that in the course 
of the late campaign he had libeled Mrs. Adams. He denied the 
charge, averring that, in his capacity of publisher, he had merely 
published a book of European travel that contained the aspersions 
complained of. 

^It was not i;nreasonabIe for General Jackson to conclude, and it 
is not unlair for us to conjecture, that it was Isaac Hill's conduct 



1 830. J coNGKiiiss i::x sJissiux. 365 

in the Portsmouth aftair against the Bank of the United States, that 
caused a nia;jority of the senate to vote against his confirmation to 
the second controller-ship of the treasury. Mr. Hill, moreover, 
was a man of inferior presence, small and slight, lame and awkward. 
He was not the " style" of person whom senators had been accus- 
tomed to see in high and responsible positions under the govern- 
ment. 

The president set about righting the wrong which he felt his 
friend had received with a tact and vigor all his own. A long com- 
munication was prepared at Washington for publication in the JVew 
Hainjjshire JPatriot, calculated to make every Jackson man in the 
state regard the rejection of Isaac Hill as a personal affront. If Mr. 
Amos Kendall was not the author of this artful and forcible pro- 
duction, then I am sure Mr. Amos Kendall can tell us who was. 
" I assure you, sir," said this anonyihous writer, " o)i my own per- 
sonal hnowledge^ that the president has entire confidence in Mr. 
Hill, and looks upon his rejection as a blow aimed at himself. He 
can not protect those whom he honors with appointments from com- 
binations of designing men operating on the api^rovmg power ; but 
the people can." 

Precisely so. The term of Mr. Senator Woodbury was about to 
expire. Waiving a reelection for reasons better known to himself 
than to the public, Mr. Woodbury lent his great influence in New 
Hampshire to the support of Isaac Hill for the seat in the senate 
about to be vacated. Hill was taken up by the Jackson men in the 
state with prompt enthusiasm, and a large number of the other party 
joined in the support of a man who was supposed to have been the 
victim of aristocratic pride and bank influence. He was elected by 
an unusual majority, and came back to Washin.gton a member of 
the body that had deemed him unworthy of a far less elevated post. 
"Were we in t-he place of Isaac Hill," said the Gourier and En- 
quirer^ " Ave would reject the presidency of the United States, if at- 
tainable, to enjoy the supreme triumph, the pure, the unalloyed, the 
legitimate victory of stalking into that very senate and taking our 
seat — of looking our enemies in the very eye — ^of saying to the men 
who violated their oaths by attempting to disfranchise citizens, 
" Give me room — stand back — do you know me ? I am that Isaac 
Hill, of New Hampshire, who, hi this very sjfot, you slandered, 
vihfied, and stripped of hi - rights ; the people, your masters^ have 



366 LIFE OF ANDREW J A <J K S O X . [1830. 

sent me here to take my seat in this very chamber, as your equal 
and your peer." 

The confirmation of Amos Kendall and Major Noah, two strong 
anti-bank men, was powerfully ojjposed in the senate. The session 
was nearly at an end before their cases were decided. Daniel Web- 
ster, on the 9th of May, wrote to his friend Dutton : " On Monday 
we propose to take up Kendall and Noah. My expectation is that 
they will both be confirmed by the easting vote of the vice-^jresi- 
dent, if the senate should be full, as I think it will be. A week 
ago I. was confident of their rejection, but one man who was relied 
on, will yield, I am fearful, to the importunities of friends and the 
dragooning of party. We have had a good deal of debate in closed 
session on these subjects, and sometimes pretty warm. Some of 
the speeches, I suppose, will be hereafter published ; none of mine, 
however. Were it not for the fear of the oxitdoor popularity of 
General Jackson, the senate would have negatived more than half 
his nominations. There is a burning fire of discontent, that must, I 
think, some day break out. When men go so far as to speak warm- 
ly against things which they yet feel bound to vote for, we may 
hope they will soon go a little further. No more of politics." Mr. 
Noah was rejected by a vote of 25 to 23. Mr. Kendall was con- 
firmed by the casting vote of the vice-president. 

The disgust and anger of the president at the conduct of the sen- 
ate in rejecting so many of his friends were extreme. The removal- 
and-appointment question was ably discussed in both houses during 
the session, and many plans were suggested for limiting the dread 
power of removal. But against so powerful an administrative ma- 
jority in the house, nothing could be done on a question which was 
made-a strictly party one, and by the proper adjustment of which 
the party in power could not but be a loser. Mr. Webster, it ap- 
pears from his correspondence, had doubts whether the constitution 
gave the president the power to remove without the consent of the 
senate. He consulted Chancellor Kent on the point, and the chan- 
cellor's reply strengthened his doubt. 

The Bank of the United States enjoyed two triumphs during this 
session of Congress. Tlie committee of ways and means, to which 
was referred that part of the president's message that related to the 
bank, a committee headed by the distinguished Mr. McDuflSe, of 
South Carolina, reported strongly in favor of the existing bank, and 



1830.1 CONGRESS IN SESSION. 367 

;is Strongly against the bank proposed by the president. Later in 
the session, Mr. Potter, of North CaroHna, introduced into the house 
four resohitions adverse to the bank. First, that the constitution 
conferred no power to create a bank ; secondly, that if it had, the 
establishment of the bank was inexpedient ; third, that paper-money 
and banks are injurious to the interests of labor, and dangerous to 
liberty ; fourth, that the house will not consent to the recharter of 
the bank. These resolutions were immediately laid upon the ta- 
ble by the decisive and significant vote of eighty-nine to sixty- 
six. The president must proceed cautiously, therefore. He did 
proceed cautiously, but not the less resolutely. The bank exulted, 
and exulted openly ; but the bank was a doomed bank, notVvith- 
standing. 

The removal of all the southern Indians to a territory west of the 
Mississippi was a measure which General Jackson entirely approved, 
and upon which, indeed, he was resolved. It was much debated 
this winter, and most strenuously opposed. The philanthropic feel- 
ings of the country were aroused. The letter of many treaties was 
shoAVTi to be against' the measure. The peaceful society of Friends 
opposed it. A volume of the leading speeches in opposition to the 
removal was widely circulated. The opinions of great lawyers 
were adverse to it. It was, indeed, one of those wise and humane 
measures by which great gJbd is done and great evil prevented, 
but which cause much immediate individual misery, and much 
grievous individual wrong. It was painful to contemplate the sad 
remnant of tribes that had been the original proprietors of the soil, 
leaving the narrow residue of their heritage, and taking up a long 
and weary march to strange and distant hunting-grounds. More 
painful it would have been to see those unfortunate tribes hemmed 
in on every side by hostile settlers, preyed upon by the white man's 
cupidity, the white man's vices, and tlie white man's diseases, until 
they perished from the face of the earth. Doomed to perish they 
are. But no one, I presume, has now any doubt that GeneralJack- 
son's policy of removal, which he carried out cautiously, but unre- 
lentingly, and not always without stratagem and management, has 
caused the inevitable process of extinction to go on with less an- 
guish and less demoralization to the whites than if the Indians had 
been suffered to remain in the states of Geoi-gia, Alabama, and Mis- 
sissippi. 



368 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [l830. 

This was the session of Congress signalized by the great debate 
between Mr. Haync and Mr. Webster, the first of many debates 
upon nuUification. The future readers of this discussion will be at 
a loss to discover, either in Mr. Foot's resolution that gave rise to 
it, or in Mr. Hayne's first speech upon that resolution, an adequate 
cause for Mr. Webster's magnificent explosions of eloquence. The 
source of liis inspiration is to be sought in the unrecordijd feeling 
of the hour. That tarifi" bill for which General Jackson had voted, 
followed as it was by a depression in the market for southern prod- 
uce, had created in the southern states an extreme and general 
discontent. Georgia, in the spring of 1829, had sent to Washing- 
ton a solemn protest against the existing tarifi", which Mr. Berrien^ 
presented to the senate in an impressive speech. Both the protest 
and the speech, however, expressed the warmest devotion to the 
Union. But in South Carolina other language had been used. A 
distinguished citizen of that state had publicly said that it was time 
for the south to begin to calculate the value of the Union ; and the 
remark had been hailed with what seemed, at a distance, to be gen- 
eral applause. In the chair of the senate sat Mr. Calhoun, who was 
already regarded by southern extremists as their predestined chief. 
There was a small, loud party in Washington, who were already in 
the habit of giving utterance to sentiments with regard to the Union 
which, familiar as they are to us, thrill#d with horror the patriotic 
spirits of thirty years ago. \ 

In these circumstances, Mr. Samuel A. Foot, of "Connecticut, 
introduced his harmless resolution to inquire into the expediency of 
suspending for a time the sale of the public lands. The debate upon 
this resolution, which has made it so memorable, was a brilliant 
accident, which surprised no one more than it surprised the eminent 
men who took the leading part in it. "The whole debate," wrote 
Mr. Webster to one of his friends," was a matter of accident. I 
had left the court pretty late in the day, and went into the senate 
with my court papers under my arm, just to see what was passing. 
It so happened that Mr. Hayne very soon rose in his first speech. 
I did not like it, and my friends liked it less." 

The entire oifense of Mr. Ilayne's speech is contained in one of 
its sentences, if not .in a single phrase. " I am one of those," said 
JMr. Hayne, " who believe that the very life of our system is the in- 
dependence of the states, and that there is no evil more to be depre- 



1830.J CONGRESS IN SESSION. 369 

cated than the consolidation of this government^ This was the 
little matter that kindled so great a fire. 

General Jackson, not yet believing that the doctrine of nullification 
was destined to become formidable, and being very friendly to Mr. 
Hayne, the brother of his old aiddecamp and inspector-general, was 
disposed, at the moment, to sympathize with the champion of South 
Carolina. Major Lewis, upon returning from the capitol after 
hearing the first day's portion of Mr. Webster's principal speech, 
found the general up, as usual, and waiting for intelligence. 

" Been to the capitol, major ?" asked the president. 

" Yes, general." 

" Well, and how is Webster getting on ?" 

" He is delivering a most powerful speech," was the reply. " I'm 
afraid he's demolishing our friend Hayne." 

" I expected it," said the general. 

The president was not long in discovering that there was possible 
danger in the new doctrine. His own position with regard to it 
was peculiar, inasmuch as he had been elected to the presidency by 
the aid of the extreme southern or states-rights party. It is evident 
that the nullifiers at this stage of their operations, expected fro^i the 
president some show of acquiescence and support. They were 
quickly undeceived. 

It had been a custom in Washington, for twenty years, to cele- 
brate the birthday (April 13th) of Thomas Jefferson, the apostle of 
democracy. As General Jackson was regarded by his party as the 
great restorer and exemplifier of Jeffersonian principles, it was 
natural that they should desire to celebrate the festival, this year, 
with more than usual eclat. It was so resolved. A banquet was 
the ^mode selected; to which the president, the vice-president, the 
cabinet, many leading members of Congress, and other distinguished 
persons were invited. Colonel Benton, who attended the banquet, 
narrates the part played in it by the president and Mr. Calhoun : 

"There was a full assemblage when I arrived, and I observed 
gentleinien standing about in clusters in the anterooms, and talking 
with animation on something apparently serious, and which seemed 
to engross their thoughts. I soon discovered wliat it was — that it 
came from the promulgation of the twenty-four regular toasts, which 
savored of the new doctrine of nullification ; and which, acting on 
some previous misgivings, began to spread the feeling, that the din- 
16* 



3V0 HFi; OF ANDREW JACKSON, [1830. 

ner was got up to inaugurate that doctrine, and to make Mr. Jeffer- 
son its father. -Many persons broke off, and refused to attend fur- 
ther ; but the company was still numerous, and ardent, as was proved 
by the number of volunteer toasts given — above eighty — in addition 
to the twenty-four regulars ; and the numerous and animated 
speeches delivered — the report of the whole proceedings tilling eleven 
newspaper columns. When the regular toasts were over, the pres- 
ident was called upon for a volunteer, and gave it — the one which 
electrified the country, and has become historical : 

" ' OuE Federal Union : It must be preserved.' 

" This brief and simple sentiment, receiving emphasis and inter- 
pretation from all the attendant circumstances, and from the feeling 
which had been spreading from the time of Mr. Webster's speech, 
was received by the public as a proclamation from the president, to 
announce a plot against the Union, and to summon the people to 
its defense. Mr. Calhoun gave the next toast ; and it did not at 
all allay the suspicions which were crowding every bosom. It was 
this : 

" ' 'Jhe Union : Next to our liberty the most dear : may we all 
remember that it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of 
the states, and distributing equally the benefit and burden of the 
Union.' 

" This toast touched all the tender parts of the new question — 
liberty before union — only to be preserved — state-rights — inequality 
of burdens and benefits.'''' 

It was supposed, at the time, that the toast offered by the pres- 
ident was an impromptu. On the contrary, the toast was prepared 
with singular deliberation, and was designed to produce the precise 
effect it did produce. Major Lewis favors the reader with the fol- 
lowing interesting reminiscence: "This celebrated toast, 'The Fed- 
eral Union : It must be preserved,' was a cool, deliberate act. The 
United States Telegraph, General Duff Green's paper, published a 
programme of the proceedings for the celebration the day before, 
to which the general's attention had been drav/n by a friend, with 
the suggestion that he had better read it. This he did in the course 
of the evening, and came to the conclusion that the celebration was 
to be a nullification affair altogether. With this impression on his 
mind, he prepared early the next morning (the day of the celebin- 



1830.] MR. VAN BUREN AND MRS. EATON. 871 

tion) three toasts which he brought Avith him when he came into 
his office, where he found Major Donelson and myself reading the 
morning papers. After taking his seat he handed them to me and 
.asked me to read theui, and tell him which I preferred : I ran my 
eye over them and then handed him the one I liked best. He 
handed them to Major Donelson also witji the same request, who, 
on reading them agreed with me. He said he preferred that one 
himself for the reason that it was shorter and more expressive. 
He then put that one into his pocket and threw the others into the 
fire. That is the true history of the toast the general gave on the 
Jefferson birthday celebration in 1830, which fell among the nuUi- 
fiers like an exploded bomb !" 

If the nullifying faction of the states-rights party were offende^ 
by the president's toast, the -patriotic majority of that party were 
gratified, a month later, by his veto of the Maysville and Lexington 
road bill. No more internal improvements, said the president in 
his veto message, until two things are done, namely, the national 
debt paid, and the constitution revised, so as to distinctly authorize 
appropriations for the construction of public roads. 

This veto, the first of a lon^ series, excited a prodigious clamor 
among the opposition. The opposition, however, could not com- 
mand a two-thirds vote in either house. So the bill was lost. It is 
questionable if, from the volume of presidential messages, an argu- 
ment more unanswerable can be selected than this Maysville veto 
message. Would that the principles it unfolds had been perman- 
ently adopted ! It did vast good, however, in checking the torrent 
of unwise appropriation, and in throwing upon the people them- 
selves the task of making the country more habitable and accessible. 



CHAPTER XXXYI. 

MR. VAN BUREN CALLS UPON MRS. EATON. 

These may seem trivial words with which to head a chapter that 
treats of dynasties, successions to the presidency, and other high 
matters. Believing, however, that the political history of the United 



3Y2 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830. 

States, for the last thirty years, dates from the moment when the 
soft hand of Mr. Van Buren touched Mrs. Eaton's knocker, I- think 
the heading appropriate. 

General Jackson succeeded in showing that the charges against 
Mrs. Eaton were not supported hy testimony, but he did not suc- 
ceed in convincing the ladies who led the society of Washington 
that Mrs. Eaton was a proper person to be admitted into their cir- 
cle. They would not receive her. Mrs. Calhoun would not, al- 
though she had called upon the lady soon after her marriage, in 
company with the vice-president, her husband. Mrs. Berrien would 
not, although Mr. Berrien, ignorant, as he afterward said, of the 
lady's standing at the capital, had been one of the guests at her 
jivedding. Mrs. Branch would not, although Mr. Branch had been 
taken into the cabinet upon Major Eaton's suggestion. Mrs. 
Ingham would not, although the false gossip of the hour had not 
wholly spared her own fair fame. Tlie wives of the foreign minis- 
ters would not. Mrs. Donelson, the mistress of the White House, 
though compelled to receive her, would not visit her. " Any thing 
else, uncle," said she, "I will do for you, but I can not call upon 
Mrs. Eaton." The general's reply, in effect, was this: "Then go 
back to Tennessee, my dear." And she went to Tennessee. Her 
husband, who was also of the anti-Eaton party, threw up hi& post 
of private secretary, and went with her ; and Mr, Nicholas P. Trist, 
of the state department, was appointed private secretary in his 
stead. Six months after, however, by the interposition of friends, 
^lajor Donelson and his wife wer€ induced to return and assume 
their former positions in the mansion of the president. 

Three weeks after the inauguration, when the president was in 
the midst of his correspondence with Dr. Ely, and when his feelingf? 
upon the subject of that correspondence were keenest, Mr. Van 
Buren arrived in Washington to enter upon his duties as secretary 
of. state. 

Mr. Van Buren was a widower. He had no daughters. Apprized of 
the state of things in Washington, he did what was ))roper, natural, 
and right. He called upon Mrs. Eaton — recei\ed 31rs. Eaton — made 
parties for Mrs. Eaton ; and on all occasions treated Mrs. Eaton with 
the marked respect with which a gentleman always treats a lady whom 
hebelieves to have been the victim of unjust aspersion. A man does 
not get much credit for an act of virtue which is, also, of all the acts 



1830.] ME. VAN BUKEN AND MES. EATON. o73 

possible in his circumstances, the most politic. Many men liave the 
weakness to refrain from doing right, because their doing so will be 
seen to signally promote their cherished objects? We haA^e notliing 
to do with Mr. Van Buren's motives. I believe them to have been 
honest. I believe that he faithfully endeavored to perform the office 
of oil upon the troubled waters. The course he adopted was the 
right course, whatever may have been its motive. 

The letter-writers of that day were in the habit of amusing their 
readers with the gossip of the capital, as letter-writers are now. 
But not a whisper of these scandals escaped into print until society 
had been rent by them into hostile " sets" for more than two years. 
After the explosion, one of the Washington correspondents gave an 
exaggerated and prejudiced, but not wholly incorrect, account of 
certain scenes in which " Bellona" (the .nickname of Mrs. Eaton) 
and the secretary of state had figured. It was among the diplo- 
matic corps, with whom Mr. Van Buren had an official as well as 
personal intimacy, that he strove to make converts to the Eaton- 
ian cause. It chanced that Mr. Vaughan, the British minister, 
and Baron Krudener, the Russian minister, were both bachelors, 
and both entered good-uTituredly into the plans of the secretary of 
state. 

" A ball and supper," says the writer just referred to, " were got 
up by his excellency, the British minister, Mr. Vaughan, a partic- 
ular friend of Mr. Van Buren. After various stratagems to keep 
Bellona afloat during the evening, in which almost every cotillon in 
which she made her appearance was instantly dissolved into it# 
original elements, she was at length conducted by the British 
minister to the head of his table, where, in pursuance of that in- 
stinctive power of inattention- to whatever it seems improper to 
notice, the ladies seemed not to know that she was at the table. 
This ball and supper were followed by another given by the Rus- 
sian minister (another old bachelor). To guard against the repeti- 
tion of the mortification in the spontaneous dissolution of the cotil- 
lons, and the neglect of the ladies at supper (where, you must ob- 
serve, none but ladies sat down), Mr. Van Buren made a direct and 
earnest appeal to the lady of the minister of Holland, Mrs. Hiiygens, 
whom he entreated in her own language to consent to be introduced 
to the ' accomplished and lovely Mrs. Eaton.' 

" The ball scene arrived, and Mrs. Huygens, with uncommon 



874 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830. 

dignity, maintained lier ground, avoiding the advances of Bellona 
and her associates, until supper was announced, when Mrs. Hi!i^gens 
was informed by Baron Krudener that Mr. Eaton would conduct 
her to the table. She declined and reiuonstrated, but in the mean- 
time Mr. Eaton advanced to offer his arm. She at first objected, 
but to relieve him from his embarrassment, walked with him to the 
table, where she found Mrs. Eaton seated at the head, beside an 
empty chair for herself. Mrs. Huygens had no alternative but to 
become an instrument of the intrigue, or decline taking supper ; she 
chose the latter, and taking hold of her husband's arm, withdrew 
from the room. This was the offense for which General Jackson 
afterward threatened to send her husband home. 

" The next scene in the drama was a grand dinner, given in the 
east room of the palace, where it was arranged that Mr. Vaughan 
was to conduct Mrs. Eaton to the table, and place her at the side 
of the president, Avho took care by his marked attentions, to ad- 
monish all i^resent (about eighty, including the principal officers of 
the government and their ladies) that Mrs. Eaton was one of his 
favorites, and that he expected her to be treated as such in all 
places. Dinner being over, the company retired to the coffee- 
room, to indulge in the exhilarating conversation which Avine and 
good company usually excite. But all would not do — nothing 
could move the inflexible ladies." 

How exquisitely gratifying to General Jackson Mr. Van Buren's 
emphatic public recognition of Mrs. Eaton must have been, every 
reader will perceive. General Jackson had thrown his whole soul 
into her cause, as has been abundantly shown in previous pages of 
this volume. But it was not General Jackson alone whom Mr. 
Van Buren's conduct penetrated with dehght and gratitude. It 
completely won the four persons who enjoyed more of General 
Jackson's confidence and esteem than any others in Washington. 
First, Major Eaton, the president's old friend and most confidential 
eabinet-adviser. Secondly, Mrs. Eaton. Thirdly, Mrs. O'Neal, the 
mother of Mrs. Eaton, the friend of the president and of his la- 
mented wife. Lastly, but not least in importance. Major William 
B. Lewis, an inmate of the White House, the president's most in- 
timate and most constant companion, and formerly the brother-in- 
law of Major Eaton. The preference and friendship of these four 
persons included the preference and support of Amos Kendall, 



1830.] MR. VAN BUREN AND MRS. EATON. 375 

Isaac Hill, Dr. Riindolpb, and all the peculiar adherents of General 
JacSson. 

The year 1829 had not closed before General Jackson was re- 
solved to do all that in him lay to secure the election of Mr. Van 
Buren as his successor to the presidency. Nor did that year come 
to an end before he began to act in furtherance of the project. "All 
through the summer and fall of 1829," writes Major Lewis, " Gen- 
eral Jackson was in very feeble health, and in December of the 
same year his friends becajne seriously alarmed for his safety. In- 
deed, his physical system seemed to be totally deranged. His feet 
and legs particularly had been much swollen for several months, 
and continued to grow worse every day, until his extreme debility 
appeared to be rapidly as.^uming the character of a confirmed dropsy. 
The general himself was fully aware of his critical and alarming 
situation, and frequently conversed with me upon the subject. The 
conversations occasionally led to another subject, in Avhich I took a 
deep interest, to wit, the election of Mr. Van Buren as liis succes- 
sor. This I thought highly important, for the purpose of carrying 
out the principles upon which the general intended to administer 
the government. But if he were to die so soon after his advent to 
power, I greatly feared this object would be defeated. However, 
even in that event, I did not entirely despair of success. It oc- 
curred to me that General Jackson's name, though he might be 

' dead, would prove a powerful lever, if judiciously used, in raising 
Mr. Van Buren to the presidency. I. therefore determined to get 
the general, if possible, to write a letter to some friend; to be used 

' at the next succeeding presidential election (in case of his death), 
expressive of the confidence he reposed in Mr. Van Buren's abili- 
ties, patriotism, and qualifications for any station, even the highest 
within the gift of the people. Having come to this resolution, I 
embraced the first favorable opportunity of broaching the subject 
to him, and was happy to find that he was not disposed to interpose 
the slightest objection to the proposition. He accordingly wrote a 
letter to his old friend. Judge Overton, and handed it to me to 
copy, with authority to make such alterations as I might think 
proper. After copying it (haying made only a few verbal altera- 
tions), I requested him to read it, and if satisfied wath it, to sign 
it. He read it, and said it would do, and then put his name to it, 
remarking, as he returned it to me : 



376 LIFE OF ANDEEW JACKSON. [1830. 

" ' If I die, you have my permission to make such use of it as 
you may think most desirable.' " * 

The letter to Judge Overton contained these words : " Permit 
me here to say of Mr. Van Buren that I have found him every 
thing that I could desire .him to be, and believe him not only de- 
serving my confidence, but the confidence of the nation. Instead 
of his being selfish and intriguing, as has been represented by some 
of his opponents, I have ever found him frank, open, candid, and 
manly. As a counselor, he is able and prudent — republican in his 
principles, and one of the most pleasant men to do business v>'ith I 
ever saw. He, my dear friend, is well qualified to fill the highest 
oflSce in the gift of the people, who in him will find a true friend 
and safe depositary of their rights and liberty. I wish I could say 
as much for Mr. Calhoun and some of his friends. You know the 
confidence I once had in that gentleman. I, however, of him desire 
not to speak ; but I have a right to believe that most of the troubles, 
vexations, and difiiculties I have had to encounter, since my arrival 
in this city, have been occasioned by his friends. But for the pres- 
ent let this sufiSce." 

Judge Overton, I believe, never knew the purpose for which this 
letter was written. The copy retained was signed by General 
Jackson and placed among the secret papers of Major Lewis, 
where it reposed until copied for the readers of these pages in 
1858. 

General Jackson and Major Lewis knew hoAV to keep a secret ; 
and this secret was confided, at first, to no one. Yet I find, from 
the correspondence of Mr. Webster and others, that some inkling' 
of the truth with regard to General Jackson's preference of Mx-. 
Van Buren for the succession, escaped the inner ofiices of the White 
House almost immediately. Sixteen days after the letter to Judge 
Overton had been written, Mr. Webster wrote to his friend, Dut- 
ton : " Mr. Van Buren has evidently, at this moment, quite the 
lead in influence and importance. He controls all the pages on the 
back stairs, and flatters what seems to be at present the Aaron's 
serpent among the president's desii'es, a settled purpose of making 
out the lady, of whom so much has been said, a person of reputa- 
tion. It is odd enough, but too evident to be doubted, that the 
consequence of this dispute in the social and fashionable world, is 
producing great political efiects, and may very probably determine 



1830.J MR, VAN BUKEN AND MKS. MAT ON. ,377 

roJio shall be successor to the present chief magistrate. Such great 
events," etc, etc., etc. 

A month later (February 27th, 1830) Mr. Webster wrote to Jere- 
miah Mason : " Calhoun is forming a party against Van Buren, and 
as the president is supposed to be Van Buren' s man, the vice-presi- 
dent has great difficulty to separate his opposition to Yan Buren 
from opposition to the president. Our idea is to let them pretty 
much alone ; by no means to act a secondary part to either. We 
never can and never must support either. While they are thus 
arranging themselves for battle, that is, Calhoun and Van Buren,- 
there are two considerations which are likely to be overlooked or 
disregarded by them, and which are material to be considered. 1. 
The probability that General Jackson will run again ; that that is 
his present purpose I am quite sure. 2. The extraordinary power 
of this anti-Masonic party, especially in Pennsylvania." 

Mr. Webster was correct in his opinion that General Jackson 
was likely to " run again," but he was exceedingly mistaken in 
supposing that the fact was " overlooked" by Mr. Van Buren. Mr. 
Van Buren was far too acute a politician not to be aware that there 
was only one man in the country, and he Andrew Jackson, who, in 
1832, could defeat the combined opposition of Calhoun and the 
South, Clay and the West, Webster and 'the North. Mr. Van 
Buren, from the first, insisted upon General Jackson's running a 
second time. It was an essential part of the programme. It was 
that which alone could make the rest of the programme possible. 

The cabinet, meanwhile, was unharmonious in the extreme. It 
was divided into two parties upon the all-absorbing question of Mrs. 
Eaton's charncter. For Mrs. Eaton were Mr. Van Buren, Major 
Eaton, Mr. Barry, and the president. Against Mrs. Eaton were 
Mr. Ingham, Mr. Branch, Mr. Berrien, and the vice-president. The 
situation of poor Eaton was most embarrassing and painful ; for the 
opposition to his wife being feminine, it could neither be resisted nor 
avenged. He was the most miserable of men, and the more the 
fiery president strove to right the wrongs under which he groaned, 
the Avorse his position became. The show of civility kept up between 
himself and the three married merr in the cabinet was, at last, only 
maintained on occasions that were strictly official. Months passed 
during which he did not exchange a word with Mr. Branch except 
in the presence of the president. 



378 LIFE OF AXOUEW JACKSON. [l 8.''0. 

After enduring this unhappy state of things for nearly a year, th-e 
president's patience was cornplotely exhausted, and he.was deter- 
mined that his cabinet should either be harmonized or dissolved. 
After much preliminary negotiation, the president offered his personal 
mediation for the purpose of restoring harmony between Major 
Eaton and his colleagues, and so this aiFair was temporarily adjusted. 
For the next fifteen months there w;is the semblance of harmony 
among the members of this ill-assprted cabinet. The president, 
however, did not often consult the three gentlemen who had families. 
The time-honored cabinet councils were seldom held, and were at 
lenarth discontinued. Mr. Van Buren maintained and stren<i:thened 
his position as the president's chief counselor and friend. The pres- 
ident spoke of the secretary of state, among his familiars, by the 
name of " Van," and called him " Matty " to his face. 

Scarcely had the cabinet been pacificated, when the suppressed 
feud between General Jackson and Mr. Calhoun was •changed, so 
far as the president was concerned, into avowed and irreconcilable 
hostility. A succession of accidental circumstances led General 
Jackson to know, that Mr. Calhoun, while a member of Mr. Mon- 
roe's cabinet, had disapproved the general's conduct in Florida .in 
1818, and had proposed, in cabinet council, an investigation of that 
conduct. Upon obtaining this information, General Jackson ad- 
dressed to Mr. Calhoun the following letter : 

GENERAL JACKSON TO MB. CALHOUN. 

"ilfay 13, 1830. 
" Sir : The frankness, which, I trust, has always characterized me 
through life, toward those with whom I have been in the habits of 
friendship, induces me to lay before you the inclosed copy of a letter 
from William H. Crawford, Esq., which was placed in my hands on 
yesterday. The submission, you will perceive was authorized by 
the writer. The statements and facts it presents being so different 
from what I had heretofore understood to be correct, requires that 
it should be brought to your consideration. They are different from 
your letter to Governor Bibb, df Alabama, of the 13th May, 1818, 
where you state, ' General Jackson is vested with full power to 
conduct the war in the manner he may judge best,' and different, 
too, from your letters to me at that time, which breathe throughout 



1 830.] MR. VAN B L' II E N AND MRS. EATON. 379 

a spirit of approbation and friendship, and particularly tlie one in 
wlriph you say, ' I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 
your letter of the 20th ultimo, and to acquaint you with the entire 
approbation qf the president of all the measures you have adopted 
to terminate the rupture with the Indians.' My object in making 
this communication is to announce to you the great surprise which 
is felt, and to learn of you whether it be possible that the informa- 
tion given is correct : whether it can be, under all the circumstances 
of which you and I are both informed, that any atterrf^t seriously 
to aflect me was moved and sustained by you in the cabinet council, 
Avhen, as is known to you, I was but executing the xoishes of the 
government, and clothed with the authority to ' conduct the war in 
the manner I might judge best.' 

" You^can, if you please, take a copy : the one inclosed you will 
please return to me. 

" I am, sir, very respectfully, your humble servant, 

"Andrew Jackson." 

Mr. Calhoun was betrayed by his extreme desire to stand well 
with the president, and to defeat the supposed machinations of his 
riviil, into the weakness of replying to his letter at prodigious 
length. Instead of taking the proper and dignified ground of de- 
clining to reveal the proceedings of a cabinet council, he avowed 
that, in the belief that General Jackson had transcended his orders 
in 1818, he did express that opinion in the cabinet council, and pro- 
posed the investigation of General Jackson's conduct by a court of 
inquiry. He justified his course, and inveighed against Mr. Craw- 
ford for betraying the secret. He reminded General Jackson, that 
the approbatory sentence quoted by him in his letter was written 
before the news of the seizure of the Spanish ports and of the exe- 
cution of Arbuthnot and Ambristei- had reached Washington. He 
adduced many proofs of Crawford's hostility to General Jackson 
and to himself, and denounced this whole proceeding as a plot to 
effect his own political extinction and the exaltation of his enemies. 
He declared that his conduct toward General Jackson, from the 
beginning of their acquaintance, had been that of a true friend and 
faithful public servant. General Jackson's reply was the follow- 
ing: 



380 LIFK OF ANKKEW JACKSON. [1830. 

GENERAL JACKSON TO MR. CALHOUN. 

3£ay SOth, 1830. 

"Sir: Your communication of the 29th instant was handed me 
this morning just as I was going to church, and of course was not 
read until I returned. 

" I regret to find that you have entirely mistaken my note of the 
13th instant. There is no part of it which calls in question either 
your conduct or your motives in the case alluded to. Motives are 
to be inferred from actions, and judged by our God. It had been 
intimated to me many years ago, that it was you, and not Mr. Craw- 
ford, who had been secretly endeavoring to destroy my reputation. 
These insinuations I indignantly repelled, upon the ground that you, 
in all your letters to me, professed to be my personal fi^end, and 
approved entirely my conduct in relation to the Seminole campaign. 
I had too exalted an opinion of your honor and frankness, to believe 
for one moment that you could be capable of such deception. Under 
the influence of these friendly feelings (which I always entertained 
for you), when I was presented with a coj^y of Mr. Crawford's 
letter, with that frankness which ever has, and I hope ever will, 
characterize my conduct, I considered it due to you, and tiie friendly 
relations which had always existed between us, to lay it fortliwith 
before you, and ask if the statements contained in that letter could 
be true. I repeat, I had a right to believe that you Avere my sincere 
friend, and, until now, never expected to have occasion to say of 
you, in the language of Caesar, J^t tu Brute ? The evidence which 
has brought me to this conclusion is abundantly contained in your 
letter now before me. In your and Mr. Crawford's dispute I have 
no interest whatever ; but it may become necessary for me here- 
after, when I shall have more leisure, and the documents at hand, 
to place the subject in its proper light, to notice the historical facts 
and references in your communication, which will give a very difier- 
ent view of this subject. 

" It is due to myself, however, to state that the knoAvledge of the 
executive documents and orders in my possession will show con- 
clusively that I had authority for all I did, and that you explanation 
of my powers, as declared to Governor Bibb, shows your own 
understanding of them. Your letter to me of the 29th, handed 
to-day, and now before me, is the first intimation to me that you 



1830.] :mr. van buren and mes. eaton. 881 

ever entertained any opinion or view of them. Your conduct, 
woi'ds, actions, and letters, I have ever thought, show this. Under- 
standing you now, no further communication with you on this Sub- 
ject is necessary. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your 
obedient .servant, Andrew Jackson." 

Mr, Calhoun persisted in continuing the correspondence. He 
added, however, nothing of importance to what he had stated in 
his first communication, and General Jackson again declared that 
he desired to hear no more upon the subject. He gave Mr. Calhoun 
plainly to understand that friendly relations between them were 
forc\er out of the question. 

In reviewing this affair, at once so trivial and so important, I 
find no cAddence whatever that Mr. Calhoun was guilty of duplicity 
toward General Jackson. Not only was he not bound to com- 
municate to General Jackson the transactions of the cabinet coun- 
cil, but he was bound not to reveal them. Nor does it appeai: that 
he ever professed, publicly or privately, to General Jackson or to any 
one else, that he approved all of the general's proceedings in Flor- 
ida. Nor was it any just cause of reproach that he did net approve 
those proceedings. He admitted that General Jackson's motives 
had been patriotic, and if he disapproved some of his acts, the gen- 
eral had no right to make that disapproval a ground of oftense. 
Mr. Calhoun's only fault in this business was in his deigning to 
make any reply to the general's first letter, except civilly to decline 
giving the information sought. He should have taken high ground 
at first, and kept it. He should have disdained to fight Mr. Craw- 
ford with his own weapons, and not followed his example of reveal- 
ing cabinet secrets. 

The truth is, that before this affair began, the president was, in 
his heart, totally estranged from Mr. Calhoun, and would have been 
glad of any pretext for breaking with him. 

The feud between the jn-esident and the vice-president which 
was not known to the public; for nearly a year after their correspond- 
ence closed, began to produce serious effects almost immediately. 
Among those who most lamented the estrangement, and had most 
reason to lament it, was General Duff Green, editor of tl)e Vnited 
State.'; Telegraph., and printer to Congress. '• We endeavored," he 
said afterward, in his paper, " to postpone the crisis by direct ap- 



382 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [l 830.- 

])eals to the president and to Mr. Calhoun. We refused to read 
the correspondence between them, because we had hoped, although 
almost against hope, even up to the last moment, that the eyes of the 
president would be opened, and that a reconciliation would take 
place. When the question came in this shape there was less dif- 
ficulty. It was not a desertion of our friends or of our principles. 
We were compelled to choose, and we took the weaker side ; not 
because we preferred Mr. Calhoun, but because his was the side of 
truth and honor." 

Soon after the dilFerence between the first ofiicers of the govern- 
ment was known by their friends to be irreconcilable, the Telegraph 
began, gradually and cautiously, to change its tone. For a consid- 
erable time General Jackson would not perceive the change, for he 
was attached to the paper and to its editor, and had many agreea- 
ble recollections connected with both. The Telegraph had sup- 
l^orted him, both before and after his election, with that daring un- 
scrujjTilousuess M'hich was congenial with the feelings of this man 
of war. Mr. Kendall, however, and Major Lewis saw the coming 
defection of General Green very plainly, and advised the presi- 
dent to provide in time for the establishment of another organ. 

" No," said the general, " you are mistaken. Give Duff time. 
He v^^ill come out right after a little reflection." 

Major Lewis felt so confident of the correctness of his surmises 
that he wrote confidentially, and without consulting the president, 
to Mr. Gooch, of the liichrnond Inquirer^ asking him if he would 
come to Washington and establish an organ, in case the presi- 
dent should, at any future time, desire it. Mr. Gooch declined. 
Mr. Kendall had his eye upon another gentleman, his old friend 
and voluntary contributor, Francis P. Blair, of Kentucky. 

If the country had been searched for the express purpose of 
selecting the man best fitted for the editorship of the proposed or- 
gan, no one could have been found Avhose history, opinions, antipa- 
thies, and cast of character so ad.apted him for the post as Mr. 
Blair. Descended from the Scotch family of whom the famous 
Hugh Blair was a member, born in Virginia, reared and educated 
in Kentucky, he had been from his youth up an ardent but disin- 
terested politician. For ten years he had taken part in the discus- 
sion of the question whether the branches of the Bank of the United 
States were, or were not, subject to state taxation, a question that 



1830.] MR. VAN HUKEN AND MRS. EATON. 383 

Avas nowhere argued with such heat and pertinacity as in Ken- 
tucky. Mr. Blair was against the bank. The ten years' agitation 
had made him acquainted with all the vulnerable points of the 
institution, and familiar with the weapons of attack. He was 
among the most decided opponents of the bank in the Union. An- 
other of his special antipathies was nullification ; and yet another 
was John Quincy Adams and the high federalism of his messages. 
Master of an easy and vigorous style, which could l;ecome slashing 
and fierce upon occasion, his whole training as a writer and a poll-- 
tician had been belligerent. He was only a warrior upon paper, how- 
ever. In person slender and unimposing, in demeanor retiring and 
quiet, in character amiable, affectionate, and grateful, the man and 
the editor were two beings as dissimilar as can be imagined. 
Jackson men who called at the office of the Globe^ expecting to 
find the thunderer of their party a man of Kentuckian proportions, 
with pistols peeping from his breast-pocket, and a bowie-knife 
stiffening his back, were amazed upon beuig told that the little 
man sitting in a corner, writing on liis knee, was the great editor 
they had come to get a sight of. 

The summons to Washington, though unexpected, Mr. Blair 
obeyed without hesitation and without delay. He reached the cap- 
ital in sorry plight ; almost penniless, with a single presentable coat, 
and that a frock-coat ; with a great gash in the side of his head from 
an overset near Washington. When he entered the president's 
office, Major Lewis could hardly conceal his disappointment. For 
weeks, Mr. Blair had been the coming man to all the habitues of 
that apartment. Whenever General Duff had ventured to come 
out a little bolder than usual against the administration or its 
friends, they had said to one another, in effect, " Never mind. Wait 
till Blair comes. lie will talk to him." And this was he — this lit- 
tle man attired in frock-coat and court-plaster ! Said Major Lewis, 
\vith a sly glance at the black patch, " Mr. Blair, we want stout 
hearts and sound heads here." 

The general took to him at once, and he to the general. At the 
very first interview, the jtresident revealed to him the situation of 
affairs without any reserve whatever. The difficulties he had had 
in his own household, the alleged machinations of the nullifiers, the 
supposed atrocities of the bank, the imaginary devices of that arch- 
devil, Henry Clay, the cabinet combination against poor Major 



384 1. IFE OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [^=3.1. 

Eaton — all were unfolded. The president invited Mr. Blair to din- 
ner. When the hour came, the editor was horrified to find a great 
company of embassadors and other high personages assembled in 
the east room, all in costume superb. The tails of his uncomfortable 
frock-coat hung heavily upon the soul of the stranger, who shrunk 
into a corner abashed and miserable. The president, as soon as he 
entered the room, sought him out, placed him at the table in the 
seat of honor at his own right hand, and completed the conquest of 
his heart. In Francis P. Blair, General Jackson gained a lover as 
well as a champion. 

Like Jonah's gourd, the Glohe appeared to spring into existence 
in a night — without capital, without a press, without types, without 
subscribers, without advertisements. Amos Kendall made a con- 
tract for the printing. 'Major Lewis, Mr. Kendall, and all the con- 
fidants of the administration exerted themselves to obtain subscrib- 
ers. The ofiice-holders were given to understand that to subscribe 
for the Globe Avas the thing they were expected to do, and the Jack- 
son presses throughout the country announced that the Globe was, 
and the Teleg^'aph was not, the confidential organ of the adminis- 
tration. Subscribers came in by hundreds in a day, and the Globe 
became a paying enterprise in a few weeks. 

In due time, came the election of Messrs. Blair and Rives as print- 
ers to Congress, which added fortune to the fame and power given 
them by the Globe. Mr. John C. Rives, the well-known partner 
of Mr. Blair, was a gentleman who added to respectable literary 
attainments an extraordinary efficiency in the management of 
business. » 



CHAPTER XXXYII 

DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET. 

In the spring of 1831, Mr. Calhoun published his " Book," as it 
was sneeringly called at the time ; a pamphlet of fifty pages octavo, 
containing his late correspondence with the president, and a mass 
of letters, statements, and certificates, illustrative thereof. In a 



1831.] DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET. 385 

prefatory address to the people of the United States, Mr. Calhoun 
explained his reasons for making a publication so unusual and un- 
expected. 

"Previous to ray arrival at Washington" (in December, 1830), 
said he, " T had confined the knowledge of the existence of the cor- 
respondence to a few confidential friends, who were politically at- 
tached both to General Jackson and myself; not that I had any 
thing to apprehend from its disclosure, but because I was unwilHng 
to increase the existing excitement in the present highly critical 
state of our public aftairs. But when I arrived here, late in Decem- 
ber, I found my caution had been of no avail, and that the corre- 
spondence was a subject of conversation in every circle, and soon 
became a topic of free comment in most of the public journals. The 
accounts of the affair, as is usually the case on such occasions, were 
for the most part, grossly distorted, and were, in many instances, 
highly injurious to my character. Still I deemed it my duty to 
take no hasty step, being determined to afi:brd time for justice to 
be done me without appeal to you ; and, if it should be, to remain 
silent, as my only object was the vindication of my conduct and 
character. Believing that further delay would be useless, I can see 
no adequate motive to postpone, any longer, the submission of all 
the facts of the case to your deliberate and final decision." 

The pamphlet was discussed in a strictly j^artisan spirit ; all the 
Jackson papers condemning it, all the opposition papers applauding 
it. A few weeks after its appearance, the New York Courier and 
Enquirer gave extracts from nearly two hundred democratic pa- 
pers, vindicating the j^resident, and condemning the course of Mr. 
Calhoun. 

The president's retort was prompt, adroit, audacious, and over- 
whelming. By a sei-ies of skillful movements, he shelved the three 
members of his cabinet — Messrs. Ingham, Branch, and Berrien — 
who were Mr. Calhoun's friends and political allies. A dissolution 
of the cabinet was the expedient hit upon. Mr. Van Buren and 
Major Eaton were to resign and to be provided for. Mr. Barry, the 
postmaster-genei'al, should retain his jolace awhile. The obnoxious 
three were expected to take a hint and leave ; if not, the president 
was prepared to ask their resignations. Go they should. 

Every thing was considered, and, as far as possible, provided f r 
bulbre the first step wa^ taken. Mr. Edward Livingston, senator 
17 



[iSQ LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [lS31. 

from Louisiana, was notified of coming events, and oflered the post 
of secretary of state, which he agreed to accept. He had recently 
paid off, principal and interest, the sum due from him to the gov- 
ernment, on account of tlie misconduct of his clerks in 1S03. Thus, 
a })ossible olyection to his appointment was removed. Mr. Louis 
McLane, minister to England, was recalled ; whic!) nrovided'a place 
for Mr. Van Buren and a new secretary of the treasury for General 
Jackson. Judge Hugh L. White, senator from Tennessee, was the 
gentleman designed to fill the place about to be vacated by Major 
Eaton. If Judge White accepted, of which there was then no doubt, 
there would be a vacant seat in the senate for Major^^]aton, to which, 
it was thought, he could be appointed. Mr. Levi Woodbury was 
ready to take the place of secretary of the navy. 

By the bold aiicl artful measures contemplated a great many de- 
sirable objects Avere expected to be gained. A united cabinet, de- 
voted to General Jackson and to the furtherance of his schemes, was 
one object. The removal of Mr. Van Buren from the scene of strife 
to a safe and commanding position abroad was thouglit to be a pro- 
ceeding well calculated to promote his interests. Moreover, the 
president had made known to many persons, at the beginning of his 
administration, his resolve that no member of his cabinet should be 
his successor. A minor object ws to relieve the unhappy Eaton 
from his painfully embarrassing situation, and restore him to the 
place he preferred, a seat in the senate. 

Mr. Van Buren returned to New York, where his friends received 
him triumpliantly. Early in August, Mr. McLane arrived from 
London, and Mr. Van Buren, soon p,fter, went abroad as American 
minister to the Court of St. James. Mr. Livingston reigned over 
the state department in his stead. Mr. Woodbury was duly ap- 
pointed seci'etary of the navy. 

On one point only did the i5cheme of the pi'esident tail of suc- 
cess. Judge White refused, point-blank, to accept the place of 
secretary of war, and thus create a vacancy in the senate for Major 
Eaton. He had been, for some time, jealous of Mr. Van Buren's 
ascendency in the councils of the president, an ascendency to which 
he had himself aspired, and which, for a short period, he had been 
thought to enjoy. Perhaps he had indulged hoj^es of being adopted 
as the successor of General Jackson; for jljieneral Jackson had 
shown h'un his list of rules for the guidance of his adininisti-ation, 



1831.] DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET. 387 

one of which ^yas that no member of the cabinet should succeed 
him. The general, too, had written to him in October, 1828, as soon 
as his election to the presidency was felt to be certain, in terms 
which appeared to justify such an expectation. 

When it was known that Judge White had dechned a place in 
the cabinet, the most extraordinary exertions were made by the 
president and his friends to induce him to change his purpose. Mr. 
J. K. Polk, General Coffee,- Mr. Grundy, Mr. Catron, General Arm- 
strong, and other Tennessee friends Avrote to him, entreating him 
to accept. General Armstrong's letter was famihar and fervent. 
"I have just parted from the president," he wrote on the 1st of 
May. "He informs me, confidentially, that you have declined the 
oftice of secretary of war. The old man said he wrote you yester- 
day, urging you still to accept. I know your friendship for the presi- 
dent, and I know, too, judge, the sacrifices you have ever been wil- 
ling to make for the love of your country. I write this at the re- 
quest of the old general, because he says I have been present here, 
and can describe plainly to you the situation of tilings as they are. 
The old man says, that all his plans will be defeated unless yoiL 
agree to come; should it be but for a period shoi't of the continu- 
ance of his administration." , 

But, no. He did not yield. The Courier and Enquirer xn'iovwx^^ 
the public that Judge White, of Tennessee, on account of severe 
domestic aftlictions, had declined the oftice of secretary of war, 
which the president had oiFered him. From that time to theend 
of his life, Judge White was tahoo among the extreme Jacksonians. 
No more were his public labors extolled in the Globe ; no more 
was his advice asked upon important measures. He went into op- 
position, at length ; was feebly run for president against Mr. Van 
Bnren ; and was diiven, finally, into retirement. 

A new man was summoned to the councils of the president, 
Lewis Cass, governor of the territory of Michigan, who was installed 
as head of the department of war in July. Though little known, 
at that day, to the country at large, Governor Cass had been for 
nearly a quarter of a century in the service of the government. It 
was he who, as member of the Ohio legislature in 1806, originated 
tlie measures against Aaron Burr which caused the explosion of that 
individual's Mexican projects. Born in New JJampshire to a revo 
lutiniiary father, Lewis Cass trudged'on foot across the Alieghanies, 



388 LIFE OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [l831. 

when he was but seventeen, to seek his fortune in the western 
wilderness. He studied law, and became a leading man in Ohio ; 
won the notice and fav^or of President Jefferson by his zeal against 
Burr, and received the appointment of marshal. He served with 
ability and distinction through the war of 1812, lighting at the bat- 
tle of the Thames by the side of General Harrison, as his volunteer 
aiddecamp. President Madison appointed him, in 1813, governor 
of Michigan, a post which he held for the unusual period of nine- 
teen years, until he was invited by General Jackson to the cabinet 
in 1831. 

The vacant attorney-generalship was conferred ujDon Mr. Roger 
B. Taney, then attornej'-genei'al of Maryland, now the chief-justice 
of the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Taney was a law- 
yer of the first distinction in his native state. He was one of the 
federalists who had given a zealous support to General Jackson in 
1828. 

Louis McLane, who came from England to take the office of secre- 
tary of the treasury, vv^as a native of Delaware, where he studied 
law under James A. Bayard, known in political history as the friend 
and correspondent of Alexander Hamilton. Mr. McLane, also, was 
a gentleman of the federalist persuasion, and a friend to the Bank 
of the United States. He had distinguished himself, in London, 
by the zeal and ability with which he conducted important negotia- 
tions 

At the next session of Congress, the senate confirmed the nomin- 
ations of Edward Livingston, Louis McLane, Levi Woodbury, 
Lewis Cass, and Roger B. Taney to their respective places in the 
cabinet. Not so the nomination of Mr. Van Buren to the post of 
British embassador. Mr. Calhoun, at that time, in common with 
most of the opposition, attributed to the machinations of Mr. Van 
Buren his rupture with the president, and the dissolution of the 
cabinet. Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster were of opiuion that it was 
Mr. Van Buren who had induced the president to adopt the New 
York system of party removals. Mr. Clay ought to have known 
the president and Mr. Van Buren better than to cherish an 
o])inion so erroneous. But it seems he did not. And, certainly, 
Mr. Van Buren, by supporting the president in that bad system, 
and supplying him i^ith plausible arguments to justify it, must ever 
be held to share in the responsibility of having debauched the 



1831.] DISSOLUTION OF THE CABINET. 389 

public service. I believe, however, that so far from urging the new 
policy iipon the president, his influence tended to lessen the number 
of removals. 

The h.-aders of the senate had resolved upon the rejection of Mr. 
Van Buren. They knew, before Congress came togethei', that this 
could be done, and they had discovered an available pretext for 
doing it. That pretext was found in the very transaction upon 
which the late secretary of state plumed himself most, and which 
General Jackson esteemed the first and one of the most valuable 
triumphs of his administration. In one of his dispatches to Mr. 
McLane, Mr. Van Buren, by the explicit order of the president, 
had directed Mr. McLane to say to the British ministry, that the 
action of the late administration was not to be considered as ex- 
pressing the sense of the American people, who had expelled it 
from power. " Now," said Mr. Webster, in commenting upon this 
dispatch, " this is neither more nor less than saying to Mr. McLane : 
' You will be able to tell the British minister, whenever you think 
proper, that you, and I, and the leading persons in this administra- 
tion, have opposed the course heretofore pursued by the govern- 
ment and the country, on the subject of the colonial trade. Be 
sure to let him know that, on that subject, v;e have held with 
England^ and not with our own governmenty Mr. Webster 
added : " Sir, I submit to you, and to tlie can?lor of all just men, if 
I am not right in saying that the j^ervading topic throughout the 
whole is, not American rights, not American interests, not Ameri- 
can defense, but denunciation of past pretensions of our own 
country, reflections on the past administrations, and exultation, and 
a loud claim of merit for the administration now in power." 

The debate was animated but brief. Fifty-one days. Colonel 
Benton informs us, Avere consumed in the preliminary maneuvers, 
but the debates lasted but two. 

The nomination of Mr. Van Buren was rejected. Colonel Ben- 
ton, in his "Thirty Years' View," gives us some rare glimpses into 
the senate chamber while the deed was in progress: "It was Mr. 
Gabriel Moore, of Alabama, who sat near me, and to whom I said, 
when the vote was declared, ' You have broken a minister, and 
elected a vice-president.' He asked me how ? and I told him the 
people would see nothing in it but a combination of rivals against 
a competitor, and v/ould pull them all do^^•n, and set him up. 



390 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSOX. [1881. 

' Good God !' said he, ' why didn't you tell me that before I voted, 
and I would have voted the other way.' " 

" On the evening of the day, on the morning of which all the 
London newspapers heralded the rejection of the American minis- 
ter, there was a great party at Prince Talleyrand's — then the rep- 
resentative at the British court, of the new king of the French, 
Louis Philippe. Mr. Van Buren, always master of himself, and of 
all the propi-ieties of his position, was thei-e, as if .nothing had hap- 
pened ; and received distinguished attention, and complimentary 
allusions. Lord Aukland, grandson to the Mr. Eden who was one 
of the commissioners of conciliation sent to us at the beginning 
of the revolutionary troubles, said to him, ' It is an advantage to a 
public man to be the subject of an outrage' — a remark, wise in 
itself, and prophetic in its application to the person to whom it 
was addressed. He came home — apparently gave himself no trouble 
about what had happened — was taken up by the people — elected, 
successively, vice-president and president — while none of those com- 
bined against him ever attamed either position. 

" There was, at the time, some doubt among their friends as to 
the policy of the rejection, but the three chiefs were positive in 
their belief that a senatorial condemnation would be political death. 
I heard Mr. Calhoun say to one of his doubtmg friends, ' It will 
kill him, sir, kill him dead. He will never kick, sir, never kick ;' 
and the alacrity with which he gave the casting votes, on the tAVO 
occasions, both vital, on whicli they Avere put into his hands, at- 
tested the sincerity of his belief, and his readiness for the work." 

The rejection secured Mr. Van Buren's political fortune. His 
elevation to the presidency, long before desired and intended by 
General Jackson, became, from that hour, one of his darhng ob- 
jects. The " party," also, took him up with a unanimity and en- 
thusiasm that left the wire-pullers of the White House little to do. 
Letters of remonstrance and approbation, signed by influential 
members of the party, were sent over the sea to Mr. Van Buren, 
who soon found that his rejection was one o^||[|^^ost fortunate 
events of his pubhc life. 




1832.] THE BANK BILL VETOED. 391 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

THE BANK BILL VETOED. 

Theke was division in the bank councils. A large number of 
the bank's wisest friends desired, above all things, to keep the 
question of rechartering out of the coming presidential campaign. 
Others said : " It is now or never with us. We have a majority in 
both houses in favor of recliartering. Let us seize the opportunity 
while we have it, for it may never return." " ISTo," said the oppo- 
site party, "the president will most assuredly veto the bill; and 
we can not carry it over the veto. Then if the president is re- 
elected, which, alas ! is only too possible, the bank is lost irrecover- 
ably. Precipitation gives us but one chance ; delay may afford us 
many." 

Mr. Clay's powerful will decided this controversy. Said he, in 
substance : " We have the president in a dilemma, upon one of the 
horns of which we can certainly transfix him. The legislature of 
his favorite state, his own devoted Pennsylvania, has unanimously 
pronounced in favor of rechartering the bank. The bank is in Penn- 
sylvania. Pennsylvania is proud of it, and thinks her prosperity 
identified with it. If the president vetoes the bill, he loses Penn- 
sylvania, the bulwark of his power and popularity. If he does not 
veto the bill, he loses fatally in the South and West. Now is our 
time." This reasoning may not have quite convinced the leading 
friends of the bank ; but the commanding influence of Henry Clay, 
then m the very zenith of his power and of his fame, caused it to 
be adopted as the policy of the institution. 

So the issue between the opposition and the r.dmiuistration was 
joined. The administration, there is good reason to believe, would 
have gladly avoided the issue at this session. I am assured, upon 
authority no less distinguished than Mr. Edward Livingston, that, 
at this stage of the contest, the president was really disposed to 
cease the war upon the bank. It was Mr. Livingston's oj^inion that 
if, at the beginning of this session, the bank had shown a little com- 
plaisance to the president, had consulted him, had consented to cer- 



392 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON'. [1832. 

lain modifications of its charter, the president could have been in- 
duced to sign the re-chartering bill. Mr. Biddle and Mr. Clay de- 
termined otherwise. They seized the earliest moment to taunt and 
defy the president, who accepted the issue. 

On the 9th of January, Mr. George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, 
presented to the senate a memorial from the president and directors 
of the bank, asking a renewal of their charter. The memorial, 
which was chiefly an apology for what might seem a premature agi- 
tation of the subject, was couched in language most modest and re- 
spectful. It was not for them, said the directors, to speak of the 
value to the public of an institution established with so much diffi- 
culty and conducted with so much toil. But the bank was con- 
nected in so many ways with the business of the country, that it 
was highly desirable the country should learn, as soon as possible, 
whether the present financial system was to cease on the 4th of 
March, 1 S3G, or endure for many years to come. If Congress, in 
its wisdom, should decree the extinction of the bank, the directors 
would do all in their power to aid the connnunity to devise new 
financial facilities, and would endeavor to close the bank witlj as 
little detriment to the business of the country as their experience in 
the management of financial aftairs would enable them. 

In presenting this gentlemanlike memorial, Mr. Dallas, a friend 
of the bank, admitted that he thought its presentation, just then, 
unwise. He feared that the bank "might be drawn into real or 
imagined conflict with some higher, some more favorite, some more 
immediate wish or pui'pose of the American people." Observe the 
senator's descending scale of adjectives : " Some higher, some more 
favorite, some more immediate." Hard lot, to be a statesman in 
a country where all politics necessarily resolve themselves into a 
contest for the first oftice — a contest renewed as soon as the wretch- 
ed incumbent has taken his seat ! 

The bill rechartering the Bank of the United States passed the 
senate on the eleventh of June, by a vote of twenty-eight to twenty, 
and the house on the third of July, by a vote of one himdred and 
nine to seventy-six. It was presented to the president on the fourth 
of July,»and l)v him returned to Congress, vetoed, on the tenth of 
the same month. The message accompanying the vetoed bill was 
one of the longest and one of the most adroit ever sent to Congress 
by a president. 



1832.] THE BANK BILL VETOED. 393 

The objections of the aclministratioft to the renewal of the bank 
charter, as expressed in this famous message, may be summed up 
in one ugly word, and that word is Moxopolt. 

Here, said the president (in effect), is a certain small body of men 
and women, the stoekholdei's of the Bank of the United States, 
upon whom the federal government has bestowed, and by the re- 
newal bill proposes to continue, exclusive privileges of immense 
pecuniary value ; and, by doing so, restricts the liberty of all other 
citizens. This is a monopoly. The granting of it, in the first place, 
inasmuch as the effect of the measure could not have been foreseen, 
may be excused ; but for its continuance there is not the shadow of 
an excuse. The following odious features of the monopoly were 
enumerated in the message : 

1. Eight millions of the stock of the bank was held by foreigners. 
The reneAval of the charter would raise the market value of that 
stock at least tAv.enty or thirty per cent. Renew the charter, and 
the American republic will make a present to foreign stockholders 
of some millions of dollars, Avithout deriving the slightest advan- 
tage fi'oni the munificent gift. 

2. Let it be granted that the government should bestow this mo- 
nopoly. Then a fair price should be paid for it. The actual value 
of the privileges conferred by the bill is computed to be seventeen 
millions of dollars, and the act proposes to sell those privileges for 
the annual sum of two hundred thousand dollars ; or, in other 
words, for three millions of dollars, payable in fifteen annual install- 
ments of two hundred thousand dollars each. 

3. The act excludes competition. Persons of Avealth and re- 
spectability had offered to take a charter on terms more favorable to 
the government than those proposed by the bill. 

4. The bill concedes to banks dealing with the bank of the 
United States what it denies to individuals. If a state bank in 
Philadelpliia owes money to the Bank of the United States, and has 
notes issued by the St. Louis branch, it can jjay its debt with those 
notes ; but a merchant must either sell his St. Lops notes at a dis- 
count, or send them to St, Louis to be cashed. This boon to banks 
operates as a bond of union among the banking institutions of the 
Avhole country, " erecthig them into an interest separate from that 
of the people." 

5. The stock held bv foreigners can not be taxed, a fact which 
17* 



394 LIFE OP ANDREW JACKSON. [1832. 

gives such stock a value t(A or fifteen per cent, greater than that 
held by citizens. 

6. As each state can tax only the amount of stock held by its 
citizens, and not the amount employed in the state, the tax will op- 
erate unequally and unjustly. 

7. Though nearly a third of the stock of the bank is held by 
foreigners, foreigners have no voice or vote in the election of the 
officers of the bank. Of the twenty-five directors, five are appointed 
by the government, and twenty by the citizen stockholders. Stock 
is continually going abroad, and the renewal of the charter will 
greatly accelerate its departure. The consequence will inevitably 
be, to throw the control of the bank into the hands of a few resident 
stockholders, who will be able to reelect themselves from year to 
year, and who will wield a power dangerous to the institutions of 
the country. 

8. Should the stock ever pass principally into. the hands of the 
subjects of a foreign country, and we should become involved in a 
war with that country, the interests and feelings of the directors 
will be opposed to those of their countrymen. " All the operations 
of the bank within would be in aid of the hostile fleets and armies 
without. Controlling our currency, receiving our public moneys, 
and holding thousands of our citizens in dependence, it would be 
more formidable and dangerous than the naval and military power 
of the enemy." If we must have a bank, every consideration of 
sound policy, and every impulse of American feeling, admonishes 
tliat it should be purely American. And this the more, as domes- 
tic capital was, so abundant, that competition in subscribing to a 
local bank had recently almost led to a riot. 

From this enumeration, the message proceeded to discuss the 
question of the constitutionality of the bill. A preliminary remark 
excited great clamor at the time. " Each public officer," said the 
president, " who takes an oath to support the constitution, swears 
that he will support it as he understands if, and not as it is under- 
stood by other^^" even though those " others " be the judges of 
the Supreme Court of the United States. " The opinion of the 
judges has no more authority over Congress than the opinion of 
Congress has over the judges ; and, on that point, the president is 
independent of both." The judges, it was true, had decided the 
law incorporating the bank to be constitutional, but only on the gen- 



1832.] THE BANK BILL VETOED. 395 

eral ground that Congress had power " to make all laws Avliicli shall 
be necessary and proper" for carrying the powers of the general 
government into execution. Necessary and proper! The ques- 
tion, then, resolved itself into an inquiry whether such an institu- 
tion as this bill proposed was necessary and proj^er. To that in- 
quiry the author of the message addressed himself; arriving, of 
course, at the conclusion that the act contained many provisions 
most unnecessary and most improi^er ; and, therefore, unconstitu- 
tional. 

Concerning the financial and legal principles laid down in this 
important document, financiers and lawyers difier in oj^inion. The 
humbler ofiice of the present chronicler is to state that the bank- 
veto message of President Jackson came with convincing power 
upon a majority of the people of the United States. It settled the 
question. And it may be safely predicted that while that message 
endures, and the Union, as it is now constituted, endures, a bank of 
the United States can never exist. If ever it should be seriously pro- 
posed to establish one agam, that message will rise from its grave in 
the volume of presidential messages, where it sleeps forgotten, to 
crush the proposition. 

It was the singular fortune of the bank-veto message to delight 
equally the friends and the foes of the bank. The opposition circu- 
lated it as a campaign document ! Duff Green published it in his 
extra Telegraphy calling upon all the opponents of the administration 
to give it the widest publicity, since it would damn the administra- 
tion wherever it was read. The New Yorh American characterized 
it thus : " It is indeed and verily beneath contemjjt. It is an appeal 
of ignorance to ignorance, of prejudice to prejudice, of the most 
unblushing partisan hostility to the obsequiousness of partisan ser- 
vility. No man in the cabinet proper will be willing to share the 
ignominy of preparing or approving such a paper." 

Nicholas Biddle himself was enchanted with it, for he thought it 
had saved the bank by destroying the bank's great enemy. "■ You 
ask," he wrote to Henry Clay, " what is the effect of the veto ? 
My impression is, that it is working as well as the friends of the bank 
and of the country could desire. I have always deplored making 
the bank a party question, but since the president will have it so, 
he must pay the penalty of his own rashness. As to the veto mes- 
sage, I am delighted with it. It has all the fury of a chained 



396 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [l832. 

panther, biting the bars of his cage. It is really a manifesto of 
anarchy, such as Marat or Robespierre might have issued to the 
mob of the Faubourg St. Antoine; and my hope is, that it will 
contribute to i-elieve the country from the dominion of these miser- 
able people. You are destined to be the instrument of that deliver- 
ance, and at no period of your life has the country ever had a 
deeper stake in you. I wish you success most cordially, because I 
believe the institutions of the Union are involved in it." 

So little did Mi-. Biddle, and such as he, know the country in 
Avhich they lived ! As little do such now know it! 

On the 16th of July, at six o'clock in the morning Congress 
adjourned. The opposition members went home to join their allies 
of the press in the attempt to convince tlie people of the United 
States that the veto was ruining the country, and Avoiild completely 
ruin it, unless ihey elected Messrs. Clay and Sergeant to the first 
offices of the government in the following November. 

The opposition press told the people that the veto had caused the 
stock of the great bank to dechne four i>er cent. ; that bricks had 
fallen from five dollars per thousand to three ; that wild consterna- 
tion pervaded the great cities ; that real estate had lost a fourth of 
its value ; that western men were contracting to deliver pork, next 
season, at two dollars and a half if Clay was elected, and at one 
and a half if Jackson was elected ; that mechanics were thrown out 
of employment by thousands, and were going supperless to bed ; 
that no more steamboats were to be built on the western rivers 
until there was a change of rulers ; that the old friends of General 
Jackson were falling away from him in every direction ; that mass 
meetings were held in every state denouncing the veto ; that the 
Irish voters were seceding from General Jackson, thousands of them 
at one meeting ; and that the defeat of the tyrant was as certain to 
occur as the sun was certain to rise on the morning of election day. 

The result of the election astonished every body. Not the Avild- 
est Jackson man in his wildest moment had anticipated a victory 
qnite so overwhelming. T^vo hundred and eiglity-eight was the 
whole number of electoral votes in 1832. General Jackson received 
two hundred and nineteen — seventy-four more than a majority. 
Mr. Van Buren, for the vice-presidency, received one hundred and 
eighty-nine electoral votes — forty-four more than a majority. Clay 
and Sergeant obtained forty-nine ! William Wirt, of Maryland, 



1832,] THE BANK BILL VETOED. 397 

and William Ellnaker, of Pennsylvania, the candidates of the anti- 
masonry party, received the electoral vote of one state, Vermont — 
a result to -which the vehement denmiciations of a |)rinter's boy, 
named Horace Greeley, may have contributed a few votes. South 
Carolina threw her vote away upon John Floyd, of Virginia, and 
Henry Lee, of Massachusetts, neither of whom were nullifiers. 

The states that voted for General Jackson Avere these : Maine, 
New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, 
North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Mississippi, 
Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, and Missouri — sixteen. All of these 
states but one gave their electoral vote to Mr. Van Buren for the 
vice-presidency. Pennsylvania preferred William Wilkins for that 
office, one of her own citizens, who received accordingly thirty votes, 
and caused Mr. Van Buren to fall thirty votes behind his chief. The 
states that gave a majority for Clay and Sergeant were : Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, and Ken- 
tucky — six. 

The Bank of the United States was doomed. The Globe had the 
audacity to say, soon after the election, that members of the defeat- 
ed party were prompting the " minions of the bank " to save the 
institution by the only expedient that could save it — the assassina- 
tion of the jDresident ! It further stated, that two members of the 
opposition had been overheard to declare, that the man who should 
do the deed would render Ijjs country a signal service, which the 
bank would gladly reward with a gift of fifty thousand dollars. 
There was one man then living in the United States who believed 
that there was truth in these stories. Andrew Jackson was his 
name. When, a little later, a lunatic aimed a pistol at him, he 
thought for days that the " minions of the bank" had set him on. 

Well, the clamor of the election, the shouts of triumph, the 
groans of the defeated, died away in the month of November, and 
were forgotten. The president, it will be admitted, was a very pop- 
ular man just then. But who could have foreseen that, within one 
little month, he was to win over to his side the very class and the 
only class that had opposed his reelection, and attain a popularity 
more fervid and universal than has been incurred by a citizen of the 
United States since the first term of General Washington's presi- 
dency ? Who could have expected to see all New England, headed 
by New England's favorite, Daniel Webster, joining with all the 



398 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832. 

north and most of the south, in one burst of enthusiastic praise of 
Andrew Jackson? 

Indeed, some of the newspapers went so far as to nominate Gen- 
eral Jackson for a third term. " My opinion is," wrote Mr. Wirt, 
" that lie may be president for life if he chooses." 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

NULLIFICATION. 

The old Jackson men still speak of Mr. Calhoun in terms which 
show that they consider him at once the most wicked ancl the most 
despicable of American statesmen. He was a coward, conspirator, 
hypocrite, traitor, and fool, say they. He strove, schemed, dreamed, 
lived, only for the presidency ; atid when he despaired of reaching 
that office by honorable means, he sought to rise upon the ruins of 
liis country — thinking it better to reign in South Carolina than to 
serve in the United States. General Jackson lived and died in this 
opinion. In his last sickness he declared that, in reflecting upon his 
administration, he chiefly regretted that he had not had John C. 
Calhoun executed for treason. " Mj^^^country," said the general, 
" would have sustained me in the act, and his fate would have been 
a warning to traitors in all time to come." 

But let us come to the facts. The war of 1812 left the country 
bui'dened with a debt of one hundred and thirty millions of dol- 
lars, and blessed v/ith a great number of small manufactories. The 
debt and the manufactories were both results of the war. By cut- 
ting off the supply of foreign manufactured articles, the war had 
produced upon the home manufacturing interest the effect of a pro- 
liibitory tariff". To pay the interest of this great debt and occasional 
mstallmeuts of the principal, it was necessary for the government to 
raise a far larger revenue than had ever before been collected in the 
United States. The new manufacturing interest asked that the du- 
ties should be so regulated as to afford some part of that comjjlete 
protection which the war had given it. The peace, that had been 
welcomed with such wild delight in 1815, had prostrated entire 



1832.] NULLIFICATION. 390 

branches of manufacture to which the war had given a buddea de- 
A^eiopment. 

Among those who advocated the chiims of the manufacturers in tiie 
session of 1815-16, and strove to have the protective principle per- 
manently incorporated into the revenue legisLation of Congress, the 
most active, the most zealous, was John O. Calhoun, member of the 
house of representatives ft-om South Carolina.' He spoke often on the 
subject, and he spoke unequivocally. Mr. Clay, who was then the 
friend, ally, and messmate of Mr. Calhoun, admitted that the Caro- 
linian had surpassed himself in the earnestness with which he 
labored in the cause of protection. 

One of his arguments was drawn from the condition of Poland 
at the time. " The country in Europe," said he, " having the most 
skillful workmen, is broken up. It is to us, if wisely used, more 
valuable than the repeal of the Edict of Nantes was to England. 
She had the prudence to profit by it — let us not discover less political 
sagacity. Afford to ingenuity and industry immediate and AMPLE 
PROTECTION, and they will not fail to give a preference to this 
free and happy country." 

The protectionists, led by Messrs. Clay and Calhoun, triumphed 
in 1816. In the tariff bill of 1820, the principle was carried farther, 
and still flxrther in those of 1824 and 1828. Under the protective 
system, manufactures flourished, and the public debt was greatly 
dimimshed. It attracted skillful workmen to the country, as Mr. 
Calhoun had said it would, and contributed to swell the tide of 
ordinary emigration. 

But, about the year 1824, it began to be thought, that the' advan- 
tages of the system were enjoyed chiefly by the Northern States, 
and the South hastened to the conclusion that the protective system 
was the cause of its lagging behind. There was, accordingly, a 
considerable southern opposition to the tariff of 1824, and a general 
southern opposition to that of 1828. In the latter year, however, 
'.the South elected to the presidency General Jackson, whose votes 
and whose writings had committed him to the principle of protec- 
tion. Southern politicians felt that the general, as a southern man, 
was more likely to further their views than Messrs. Adams and 
Clay, both of whom were peculiarly devoted to protection. 

As the first years of General Jackson's administration wore away 
without affording to the South the " relief" which they had hoped 



400 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [l8o2. 

from it, the discontent of the southern people increased. Circum- 
stances gave them a new and most telling argument. In 1831, the 
public debt had been so far diminished as to render it certain that 
in three years, the last dollar of it would be paid. The government 
had been collecting about twice as much revenue as its annual ex- 
penditures required. In three years, therefore, there would be an 
annual surplus of twelve or thirteen millions of dollars. The South 
demanded, with almost a imited voice, that the duties should be 
reduced so as to make the revenue equal to the expenditure, and 
that, in making this reduction, the principle of protection should be, 
in eifect, abandoned. Protection should thenceforth be " incidental" 
merely. The session of 1831-32 was the one during which southern 
gentlemen hoped to effect this great change in the policy of the 
country. The president's message, as we have seen, also announced 
that, in view of the speedy extinction of the public debt, it was 
high time that Congress should prepare for the threatened surplus. 

The case was one of real difficulty. It was a case for a statesman. 
To reduce the revenue thirteen millions, at one fell and indiscrimi- 
nate swoop, would close half the workshops in the country. At the 
same time, for the United States to go on raising thirteen millions a 
year more than was necessary for carrying on the government, would 
have been an intolerable absurdity. 

Mr. Clay, after an absence frolii the halls of Congress of six 
years, returned to the senat^ in. December, 1831 — an illustrious 
figure, the leader of the opposition, its candidate for the presi- 
dency, his old renown enhanced by his long exile from the scene 
of his • well-remembered triumphs. The galleries filled when he 
was expected to speak. He was in the prime of his prime. He 
never spoke so well as then, nor as often, nor so long, nor with so 
mtich a])plause. But he either could not, or dared not, undertake 
the choking of the Surplus. What wise, complete, far-reaching 
measure can a candidate for the presidency link his fortunes to ? 
He wounded, without killing it ; and he was compelled^ at a later 
day, to do what it had been glorious voluntarily to attempt in 
1832. He proposed merely "that the duties upon articles im- 
ported from foreign countries, and not coming into competition 
with similar articles made or produced within the United States, 
be forthwith abolished, except the duties upon wines and silks, and 
that those be reduced." After a debate of months' duration, a bill 



1832.] NULLIFICATION. 401 

in accordance with this propositiornpassed both houses, and was 
pigned by the president. It preserved the protective principle in- 
tact; it reduced the income of the government about three niil- 
Hons of doUars ; and it inflamed the discontent of the South to 
such a degree, that one state, under the influence of a man of force, 
became capable of — ISTulUtication. 

The president signed the bill, as he told his friends, because he 
deemed it an approach to the measure required. His influence, 
during the session, had been secretly exerted in favor of compro- 
mise. Major Lewis, at the request of the president, had been much 
in the lobbies and committee-rooms of the capitol, urging members 
of both sections to make concessions. The president thought that 
the just coiirse lay between the two extremes of abandoning the 
protective principle and of reducing the duties in total disregard 
of it. 

To return to Mr. Calhoun. His hostile correspondence with the 
president was published by him, as we have before stated, in the 
spring of 1831. The president retorted by getting rid of the ^ree 
members of the cabinet who favored the succession of Mr. Calhoun 
to the presidency. Three months after, in the Pendleton Messen- 
ger of South Carolina, Mr. Calhoun continued the strife by pub- 
lishing his first treatise npon nullification. 

The essay, which fills five columns of the Courier and Enqtdrer., 
is divided intQ two parts. First, the vice-president endeavors to 
show that nullification is the natural, proper, and peaceful remedy 
for an intolerable grievance inflicted by Congress npon a state or 
upon a section ; secondly, that the tarifl" law of 1828, unless recti- 
fied during the next session of Congress, will be such a grievance. 
He went all lengths against the protective principle. It was un- 
constitutional, unequal in its operation, oppressive to the South, an 
evil " inveterate and dangerous." The reduction of duties to the 
revenue standard could be delayed no longer " without the most 
distracting and dangerous consequences." "The honest and obvi- 
ous course is, to prevent the accumulation of the surplus in the 
treasury, by a timely and judicious reduction of the imposts ; and 
thereby to leave the money in the pockets of those Avho made it ; 
and from whom it can not be honestly nor constitutionally taken, 
unless required by the lair and legitimate wants of the government. 
If, neglecting a disposition so obvious and just, the government 



402 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832. 

should attempt to keep up th(4 present high duties, when tlie m-oney 
is no longer wanted, or to dispose of this immense surplus by 
enlarging the old, or devising new schemes of appropriatious ; or, 
finding that to be impossible, it should adopt the most dar.gerous, 
unconstitutional, and absurd project ever devised by any govern- 
ment, of dividing the surplus among the states (a project which, if 
carried into execution, could not fail to create an antagonist inter- 
est between the states and general government, on all questions of 
approjjriatlons, which would certainly end in reducing the latter to 
a mere office of collection and distribution), either of these modes 
would be considered, by the section suffering mider the present 
high duties, as a fixed determination to perpetuate forever what it 
considers the present unequal, unconstitutional, and oppressive bur- 
den ; and^from that moment^ it loould cease to looh to the general 
governnioit for relief.'''' 

Nullification is distinctly announced in this passage. 

In this performance, J\lr. Calhoun did not refer to his forgotten 
championship of the protective policy in 1816. The busy burrow- 
ers of the press, however, occasionally brought to the surface a 
stray memento of that championship, which the press of South Car- 
olina denounced as slanderous. A Mr. Reynolds, of South Caro- 
lina, was moved, by his disgust at such remhiders, to write to 
Mr. Calhoun, asking him for information respecting " the origin of 
a system so abhorrent to the South." Mr. Calhoun's reply to the 
inquiry does not read like the letter of an honest man. It certain- 
ly conveyed impressions at variance with the truth. He said that 
"he had always considered the tarifl" of 1816 as in reality a 
measure of revenue — as distinct from one of protection ;" that it 
reduced duties instead of increasing them ; that the protection of 
manufactures was regarded as a mere incidental feature of the bill ; 
that he had regarded its protective character as temj^orary, to last 
only until the debt should be paid ; that, in fact, he had not paid 
very particular attention to the details of the bill at the time, as he 
was not a member of the committee which had drafted it ; that 
" his time and attention were much absorbed with the question of 
the currency," as he was chairman of the committee on that sub- 
ject ; that the tariff bill of 1816 was innocence itself compared with 
the monstrous and unconstitutional tariff of 1828, and had no jjrin- 
ciple in common with it. 



1882.] NULLIFICATION. 403 

These assertions may not ail be quite destitute of truth, hut they 
are essentially false, and the impression created by them is most 
erroneous. The render has but to turn to the debates of 1816, to 
discover that the discussion of the tariff bill turned enth'ely on its 
protective character, and that Mr, Calhoun was the special defender 
of its protective provisions. The strict constructionist or state- 
rights party vras headed then in the house by John Randolph, who, 
on many occasions during the long debate, rose to refute Mr. Cal- 
houn's protective reasoning. Calhoun was then a member of the 
other wing of the republican party. He was a bank man, an in- 
ternal improvement man, a protectionist, a consolidationist. 

Mr. Calhoun's fulniination in the Pendleton Messenger was dated 
July 26th, 1831. Congress met in December following, and de- 
bated the tariff all the winter and spring. Late in the month of 
June, by a majority of thirty-two to sixteen in the senate, by a ma- 
jority of one hundred and twenty-nine to sixty-five in the house, 
Mr. Clay's bUl, reaffirming the protective principle, and abolishing 
duties on articles not needing protection, was passed. A month 
after, Congress adjourned ; the vice-president went home to 
South Carolina ; and that turbulent little state soon prepared 
to execute the threats contained in the vice-president's Pendleton 
manifesto. 

The legislature of the state, early in the autumn, passed an act 
calling a convention of the citizens of South Carolina, for the pur- 
pose of taking into consideration the late action of Congress, and 
of suggesting the course to be pursued by South Carolina in relation 
to it. At Columbia, on the nineteenth of November, the conven- 
tion met. It consisted of about one hundred and forty members, 
the elite of the state. The Hamiltons, the Haynes, the Pinckneys, 
the Butlers, and, indeed, nearly all the great families of a state of 
great families were represented m it. It was a body of men as re- 
spectable in character and ability as has ever been convened in 
South Carolina. Courtesy and resolution marked its proceedings, 
and the work undertaken by it was done with commendable thor- 
oughness. A committee of twenty-one was appointed to draAV up 
im address to the people of the state, or rather a programme of the 
proceedhigs best calculated to promote the end designed. The 
chief result of the labors of this committee was the celebrated Or- 
mxANCE ; which ordinance, signed by the entire convention, con- 



404 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832^ 

sisted of five distinct decrees, to the execii,tion of which the mem- 
bers pledged themselves. It was ordained — 

I. That the tariff law of 1828, and the amendment to the same of 
1832, were " null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this state, its 
officers or citizens." 

II. No duties enjoined by that law cTr its amendment shall be 
paid, or permitted to be paid, in the state of South Carolina, after 
the first day of February, 1833. 

III. In no case involving the validity of the expected nullifying 
act of the legislature, shall an appeal to the Supreme Court of the 
United States be permitted. No copy of proceedings shall be al- 
lowed to be taken for that purpose. Any attempt to appeal to the 
Supreme Court " may be dealt with as for a contempt of the court," 
from which the appeal is taken. 

IV. Every office-holder in the state, whether of the civil or. the 
military service, and every person hereafter assuming an office, and 
every juror, shall take an oath to obey this ordinance, and all acts 
of the legislature in accordance therewith or suggested thereby. 

V. If the government of the United States shall attempt to en- 
force the tariff laws, now existing, by means of its army or navy, 
by closing the ports of the state, or preventing the egress or ingress 
of vessels, or shall in any way harass or obstruct the foreign com- 
merce of the state, then South Carolina will no longer consider her- 
self a member of the federal Union : " the people of this state will 
thenceforth hold themselves absolved from all further obligation to 
maintain or preserve their pohtical connection with the people of 
the other states, and will forthwith proceed to organize a separate 
government, and do all other acts and things wliich sovereign and 
independent states may of right do." 

Such was the nullifying ordinance of November 24th, 1832 — Mr. 
Calhoun's peaceful, constitutional, and union-cementing remedy for 
a federal grievance. The convention issued an address to the peo- 
ple of the other states of the Union, justifying its proceedings, and 
then adjoiirned. 

The people of South Carolina accepted the ordinance with re- 
markable unanimity. Thei'e was a Union party in the state, re- 
spectable in numbers and character, but the nuUifiers commanded 
an immense, an almost silencing majority. Robert Y. Hayue, a 
member of the convention, was elected governor of the state, and 



1832.] NULLIFICATION^. 405 

the legislature that assembled early in December, Avas chiefly com- 
posed of nnllifiers. The message of the new governor indorsed the 
acts of the convention in the strongest language })Ossil)le. "I re- 
cognize," said the governor, " no allegiance as paramount to that 
which the citizens of South Carolina owe to the state of their birth 
or their adoption. I here publicly declare, and wish it to be dis- 
tinctly understood, that I shall hold myself bound, by the highest 
of all obligations, to carry into full effect, not only the ordinance of 
the convention, but every act of the legislature, and every judgment 
of our own courts, the enfoi'cement of which may devolve on the 
executive. I claim no right to revise their acts. It will be my 
duty to execute them ; and that duty I mean, to the utmost of my 
power, foithfully to j^erform." 

He said more : "If the sacred soil of Carolina should be polluted 
by the footsteps of an invader, or be stained -with the blood of her 
citizens, shed in her defense, I trust in Almiglity God that no son of 
hers, native or adopted, who has been nourished at her bosom, or 
been clierished by her bounty, will be found raising a parricidal arm 
against our common motlier." 

The legislature instantly responded to the message by passing the 
acts requisite for carrying the ordinance into practical effect. The 
governor was authorized to accept the services of volunteers, who 
Avere to hold themselves in readiness to march at a moment's warn- 
ing. The state resounded. with the noise of warlike preparation. 
Blue cockades, with a palmetto button in the center, appeared upon 
thousands of hats, bonnets, and bosoms. Medals were struck ere 
long, bearing this inscription : " John C. Calhoun, First President 
of the Southern Confederacy." The legislature proceeded soon to 
fill the vacancy created in the senate of the United States by the 
election of Mr. Hayne to the governorship. John C. Calhoun, vice- 
president of the United States, was the individual selected, and Mr. 
Calhoun accepted his seat. He resigned the vice-presidency, and 
began his journey to Washington in December, leaving his state in 
the wildest ferment. 

Two months of the autumn of this year. General Jackson spent 
in visiting his beloved Hermitage, the grave of his wife. But 
he had had an eye upon South Carolina. Soon after his return 
to Washington in October, came news that the convention of the 
South Caiolina nuUifiers was appointed to meet on the nineteenth 



406 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832. 

of November. On the >;ixtli of that month, the president sent se- 
cret orders to the collector of the port of Charleston of an energetic 
character : 

" Upon the supposition that the measures of the convention, or 
the acts of the legislature, may consist, in part at least, in declaring 
the laws of the United States imposing duties unconstitutional, and 
null and void, and in forbidding their execution, and the collection 
of the duties within the state of South Carolina, you will, immedi- 
ately after it shall be formally announced, resort to all the means 
provided by the laws, and particularly by the act of the second of 
March, 1799, to counteract the measures which may be adopted to 
give effect to that declaration. 

" For this purpose you will consider yourself authorized to em- 
ploy the revenue cutters which may be within your district, and 
provide as many boa|s, and employ as many inspectors, as may be 
necessary for the execution of the law, and for the purposes of the 
act already referred to. You will, moreover, cause a sufficient num- 
ber of officers of cutters and inspectors to be placed on board, and 
in charge of every vessel arriving from a foreign port or place, with 
goods, wares, or merchandise, as soon as practicable after her first 
coming within your district, and direct them to anchor her in some 
safe place within the harbor, where she may be secure from any act 
of violence, and from any unauthorized attempt to discharge her 
cargo before a com|)liance with the la^\;s ; and they Avill remain on 
board of her at such place until the reports and entries required by 
law shall be made, both of vessel and cargo, and the duties paid, or 
secured to be paid to your satisfaction, and until the regular permit 
shall be granted for landing the cargo ; and it will be your duty, 
ao-ainst any forcible attempt, to retain and defend the custody of 
the said vessel, by the aid of the officers of the customs, inspectors, 
and offiqrc^ of the cutters, until the requisitions of the law shall be 
fully complied with ; and in case of any attempt to remove her or 
her cargo from the custody of the officers of the customs, by the 
form of legal process from state tribunals, you will not yield the cus- 
tody to such attempt, but Avill consult the law officer of the district, 
and employ such means as, under the particular circumstances, you 
may legally do, to resist such process, and prevent the removal of 
the vessel and cargo." 

A few days after the dispatch (if these orders, General >cott was 



1832.] NULLIFICATION. 407 

quietly ordered to Charleston, for the purpose, as the president 
confidentially informed the collector, " of superintending the safety 
of the ports of the United States in that vicinity." Other changes 
were made in the disposition of naval and military forces, designed 
to enable the president to act with swift efficiency, if there should 
be occasion to act. If ever a man was resolved to accomplish a 
purpose, General Jackson was resolved on this occasion to pre- 
serve intact the authority with which he had been intrusted. 
Nor can any language do justice to the fury of his contemptuous 
wrath against the author and fomenter of all this trouble. 

Congress met on the third of December, 1832. Mr. Calhoun 
had not reached Washington, and his intention to resign the vice- 
presidency was not known there. Judge White, oflTennessee, was 
elected president of the senate, pro tern., and the president of the 
United States was then notified that Congress was ready to receive 
the annual message. 

The message of 1832 reveals few traces of the loud and threaten- 
ing contentions amid which it was produced. 

The troubles in South Carolina were dismissed in a single para- 
graph, which expressed a hope of a speedy adjustment of the 
difficulty. 

While Congress was listening to this calm and suggestive mes- 
sage, the president was absorbed in the preparation of another doc- 
ument, and one of a very different desci'iption. A pamphlet con- 
taining the proceedings of the South Carolina Convention reached 
him on one of" the last days of November. It moved him pro- 
foundly;/ for this fiery spirit loved his country as few men have 
loved it./ Though he regarded those proceedings as the fruit of 
John C. Calhoun's treasonalile ambition and treasonable resentment, 
hi' rose, on this occasion, above personal considerations, and con- 
ducted himself with that union ofi daring and prudence which had 
given him such signal success in whr. He went to liis office alone, 
and began to dash off page after page of the memorable proclama- 
tion which was soon to* electrify the country. He wrote with 
that great steel pen of his, and with such rapidity, that he was 
obliged to scatter the written pages all over the table to let them 
dry. A gentleman who came in when the president had written 
fifteen or twenty pages, observed that three of them Avere glisten- 
ing with wet ink at the same moment. The warmth, the glow, the 



408 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1832. 

passion, the eloquence of that pi'oclamation, were produced then 
and there by the president's own hand. 

To these pages were added many more of notes and memoranda 
whicli had been accumulating in the presidential hat for some 
weeks, and the whole collection Avas then placed iti the hands of 
Mr. Livingston, the Secretary of State, who was requested to draw 
xip the proclamation in proper form. Major Lewis writes to me : 
" Mr. Livingston took the papers to his office, and, in the course of 
three or four days, brought the proclamation to the general, and 
left it for his examination. After reading it, he came into my room 
and remarked that Mr. Livingston had not correctly understood his 
notes — there were portions of the draft, he added, which were not 
in accordance^vith his views, and must be altered. He then sent 
his messenger for Mr. Livingston, and, when he came, pointed out 
to him the jDassages wliich did not represent his views, and re- 
quested him to take it back with him and make the alterations he 
had suggested. This was done, and the second draft being satis- 
factory, he ordered it to be published. I will add that, before the 
proclamation was sent to press to be published, I took the liberty 
of suggesting to the general Avhether it would not be best to leave 
out that portion to which, I was sure, the state-rights party would 
particularly object. He refused. 

" ' Those are my views,' said he with great decision of manner, 
'and I will not change them nor strike them out.' " 

This celebrated paper Avas dated December 11th, 1832. The 
word proclamation does not describe it. It reads more like the last 
appeal of a sorrowing but resolute father to wayward, misguided 
sons. Argument, warning, and entreaty Avere blended in its com- 
position. It began by calmly refuting, one by one, the leading posi- 
tions of the nullifiers. The right to annuls and the right to secede, 
as claimed by them, were shoAvn to be incompatible with the funda- 
mental idea and main object of the constitution ; which was " to 
form a more perfect Union." That the tariff act complained of did 
operate unequally Avas granted, but so di'd every revenue laAv that 
had ever been or could ever be passed. The right of a state to 
secede Avas strongly denied. " To say that any state may at pleasure 
secede from the Union is to say that the United States are not 
a nation." The individual states are not completely sovereign, for 
they voluntarily resigned part of their sovereignty. " Hoav can 



1832.] NTTLLIFICATION. 409 

that state be said to be sovereign and independent whose citizens 
owe obedience to laws not made by it, and whose magistrates are 
sworn to disregard those laws, when they come in conflict with 
those passed by another ?" 

Finally, the people of South Carolina were distinctly given to 
understand, that, in case any forcible. resistance to the laws were 
attempted by them, the attempt would be resisted by the combined 
power and resources of the other states. For one word, hoAvever, 
of this kind, there w.ere a hundred of entreaty. " Fellow-citizens of 
my native state !" exclaimed the president, " let me not only ad- 
monish you as the first magistrate of our common country not to 
incur the penalty of its laws, but use the influence that a father 
would over his children whom he saw rushing to certain ruin. In 
that paternal language, with that paternal feeling, let me tell you, 
my countrymen, that you are deluded by men who are either de- 
ceived themselves or wish to deceive you." 

Such were the tone and manner of this celel^-ated proclamation. 
It was clear in statement, forcible in argument, vigorous in style, 
and glowing with the fire of a genuine and enlightened patriotism. 
It was such a blending of argfiment and feeling as Alexander Hamil- 
ton would have drawn up for Patrick Henry. 

The proclamation was received at the North with an enthusiasm 
that seemed unanimous, and was nearly so. The opposition press 
bestowed the warmest encomiums upon it. Three days after its 
appearance in the newspapers of 'New York, an immense meeting 
was held in the Park, for the purpose of stamping it with metro- 
politan approval. Faneuil Hall in Boston was qaick in responding 
to it, and there were Union meetings in every large town of the 
Northern States. In Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, Mary- 
land, Delaware, Missouri, Louisiana, and Kentucky the proclamation 
was generally approved as an act, though its extreme federal posi- 
tions found many opponents. 

In South Carolina, however, it did but inflame the prevailing 
excitement. The legislature of that state, being still in session, 
immediately passed the following resolution : 

" Whereas, the president of the United States has issued his proc- 

Lamation, denouncing the proceedings of this state, calling upon the 

citizens thereof to renounce their primary allegiance, and threatening 

them with military coercion, unwarranted by the constitution, and 

13 



410 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [l838. 

Utterly iuconsisieiit witli the existence of a free state : Be it, there- 
fore, 

" Resolved., That his excellency the governor be requested, forth- 
with, to issue his proclamation, warning the good people of this 
state against the attempt of the president of the United States to 
seduce them from their allegiance, exhorting them to disregard his 
vain menaces, and to be prepared to sustain the dignity and protect 
the liberty of the state against the arbitrary measures proposed by 
the president." 

Governor Hayne issued his proclamation accordingly, and a most 
pugnacious document it was. He denounced the doctrines of the 
president's proclamation as " dangerous and pernicious ;" as " spe- 
cious ;uid false ;" as tending " to uproot the very foundation of our 
political system, annihilate the rights of the states, and utterly de- 
stroy the liberties of the citizen ;" as contemplating " a great, con- 
solidated empire^ one and indivisible, the vrorst of all despotisms." 
The governor declared that the state would maintain its sovereignty, 
or be buried beneath its ruins. "As uijliappy Poland," said he, 
" fell before the power of the autocrat, so may Carolina be crushed 
by the power of her enemies ; but Poland was not surrounded by 
free and independent states, interested, like herself, in preventing 
the establishment of the very tyranny which they are called upon to 
impose upon a sister state." 

The proclamation of the governor of South Carolina was made 
public on the last day of the year 1832. The first of February, 
1833, the day appointed for the nullification of the tarifi" laws to 
take effect, was drawing alarmingly near. Meanwhile the military 
posts in South Carolina were filling with troops of the United States, 
and a naval force was anchored off Charleston. The Carolinians 
continued their military preparations. Fair fingers were busier than 
ever in making palmetto cockades, and, it is said, a red flag with a 
black lone star in the center was adopted as the ensign of some of 
the volunteer regiments,* Nullifying steamboats and hotels, it is also 
reported, exhibited the flag of the United States with the stars 
downward. 

When the proclamaiion of Governor Hayne reached Washington, 
the president forthwith replied to it by asking Congress for an 
increase of powers adequate to the impending collision. The mes- 
sage in which he made this request, dated January 16th, 1833, gave 



1833.] NULLIFICATION. 411 

a brief history of events in South CaroHna, and of the measures 
hitherto adopted by the administration ; repeated the arguments of 
the recent proclamation, and added others : stated the legal points 
involved, and asked of Congress such an increase of executive powers 
as would enable the government, if necessary, to close ports of entry, 
remove threatened custom-houses, detain vessels, and protect from 
state prosecution such citizens of South Carolina as should choose, 
or be compelled, to pay the T)bnoxious duties. 

One of the points made in this message, amused as many of the 
people, at the time, as were calm enough to be amused. " Oppres- 
sion " was the favorite word of the South Carolinians in discoursing 
upon their grievances. That the revenue system hitherto pursued, 
said the president, " has resulted in no such oppression upon South 
Carolina, needs no other proof than the solemn and official declara- 
tion of the late chief magistrate of that state in his address to the 
legislature. In that he says that ' the occurrences of the past year, 
in connection with our domestic concerns, are to be reviewed with 
a sentiment of fervent gratitude to the Great Disposer of human 
events; that tributes of grateful acknowledgment are due for the 
various and multiplied blessings he has been pleased to bestow on 
our people ; that abundant harvests in every quarter of the state 
have crowned the exertions of agricultural labor ; that health, almost 
beyond former precedent, has blessed our homes ; and that thereis 
not less reason for thanJifulness in surveying our social condition.'' '' 
This was a happy hit. It was probably the first time that the for- 
mal utterances of thanksgiving which precede state papers were 
ever made to do duty as rebutting evidence. 

Mr. Calhoun was in his place in the senate chamber when this 
message was read. He had arrived two weeks before, after a jour- 
ney which one of his biographers compares to that of Luther to 
the Diet of Worms. He met averted faces and estranged friends 
every where on his route, we are told ; and only now and then, 
some daring man found courage to whisper in his ear: " If you are 
sincere, and are sure of your cause, go on, in God's name, and fear 
nothing." Washington was curious to know, we are further as- 
sured, what the arch-nullifier would do when the oath to suj^port 
the constitution of the United States was proposed to him. "The 
floor of the senate chamber and the galleries Avere thronged with 
spectators. Tliey saw him take the oatli with a solemnity and dig- 



412 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833. 

nity appropriate to the- occasion, and then calmly seat himself on 
the right of the chair, among liis old political friends, nearly all of 
whom Avere now arrayed against him." 

After the president's message had been read, Mr. Calhomi rose 
to vindicate himself and his state, which he did Avith that singular 
blending of subtlety and force, truth and sophistry, which charac- 
terized his later efforts. He declared himself still devoted to the 
Union, and said that if the government were restored to the prin- 
ciples of 1798, he would be the last man in the country to question 
its authority. 

, A bill conceding to the president the additional powers request- 
ed in his message of January 16th was promptly reported, and 
finally passed. It was nicknamed, at the time, the Force Bill, and 
was debated with the heat and acrimony which might have been 
expected. As other measures of Congress rendered this bill un- 
necessary, and it had no practical effect whatever, we need not 
dwell upon its provisions nor review the debates upon it. It pass- 
ed by majorities unusually large, late in February. 

The first of February, the dreaded day which was to be the first 
of a fratricidal war, had gone by, and yet no hostile and no nullify- 
ing act had been done in South Carolina. How was this? Did 
those warlike words mean nothing ? Was South Carolina repent- 
ant ? It is asserted by the old Jacksonians that one citizen of South 
Carolina was exceedingly fiightened as the first of February drew 
near, namely, John C. Calhoun. /The president was resolved, and 
avowed his resolve, that the hour which brought the news of one act 
of violence on the j)art of the nuUifiers, shonld find Mr. Calhoun a 
prisoner of state uj^on a charge of high treason. And not Cal- 
houn only, but every member of Congress from South Carolina 
who had taken part in the proceedings which had caused the con- 
flict between South Carolina and the general government. Whether 
this intention of the president had any cfiect upon the course of 
events, we can not know. It came to pass, however, that, a few , 
days before the first of February, a meeting of the leading nulUliers 
was held in Chai-leston, who passed resolutions to this effect : thaty 
inasmuch as measures were then pending in Congress which con- 
templated the reduction of duties demanded by South Carolina, 
the nullification of the existing revenue laws should be postponed 
until after the adjournment of Congress; when the convention 



1S33.] NULLIFICATION. 413 

■would reassemble, and take into consideration -whatever revenue 
measures may have been passed by Congress, The session of 1833 
being the "short "- session, ending necessarily on the fourth of 
March, the Union Avas res})ited thirty days by the Charleston 
meeting. 

It remains now to relate the events which led to the pacification 
of this painful and dangerous dispute. 

The president, in his annual message, recommended Congress to 
subject the tariff to a new revision, and to reduce the duties so that 
the revenue of the government, after the payment of the public 
debt, should not exceed its expenditures. He also recommended 
that, in regulating the reduction, the interest of the manufocturers 
should be duly considered. We discover, therefore, that while the 
president was resolved to crusli nullification by force, if it opposed 
by force the collection of the revenue, he was also disposed to con- 
cede to nullification all that its more moderate advocates demanded. 
Accordingly, Mr. McLane, the Secretary of the Treasury, with the 
assistance of Mr. Gulian C. Verplanck, of New York, and other 
administration members, prepared a new tariff" bill, which provided 
for the reduction of duties to the revenue standard, and which was 
deemed by its authors as favorable to the manufacturing interest 
as the circumstances permitted. This bill, reported by Mr. Ver- 
planck on the 2Sth of December, and known as the Verplanck Bill, 
was calculated to i-educe the revenue tliirteen millions of dollars, 
and to afibrd to the manufiicturers about as much protection as the 
tariff of 1816 had given them. It put back the " American System," 
so to speak, seventeen years. It destroyed nearly all that Mr. Clay 
and the protectionists had effected in 1820, 1824, 1R2S, and 1832. 

The Verplanck Bill made slow progress. The outside pressure 
against it was such, that there seemed no prospect of its passing. 
The session was within twenty days of its inevitable termination. 
The bill had been debated and amended, and amended and debated, 
and yet no apparent progress had been made toward that concilia- 
tion of conflicting interests without which no tariff bill whatever 
can pass. The dread of civil war, which overshadowed the capital, 
seemed to lose its power as a legislative stimulant, and there was a 
respectable party in Congress, led by Mr. Webster, who thought 
that all tariff legislation was undignified and improper while South 
Carolina maiutamed her threatening attitude. The constitution, 



414 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833. 

Mr. Webster nuiintained, was on trial. The time had come to test 
its reserve of self-supporting power. Ko compromise, no concession, 
said he, until the nullifying state returns to her allegiance. 

On the 12th of February, Mr. Clay introduced his celebrated 
comjoromise bill for the regulation of the tariff. It differed from the 
measure devised by the administration and engineered by Mr. Ver- 
planck, chiefly in this : Mr, Verplanck proposed a sudden, and Mr. 
Clay a gradual reduction of duties. The Verplanck Bill tended 
mainly to the conciliation of the nxillifiers ; the Clay compromise, 
to the preservation of the manufacturers. Mr. Clay's bill provided 
that, on the last day of the year 1833, all ad valorem duties of moi-e 
than twenty per cent, should be reduced one-tenth ; on the last day 
of the year 1835, there should be a second and a similar reduction ; 
another, to the same amount, at the close of 1837 ; and, so on, re- 
ducing the duti'es every two years, until the 31st of June, 1842, all 
duties should be reduced to or below the maximum of twenty per 
cent. The object of Mr. Clay was to save all that he could save of • 
the protective policy, and to postpone further action upon the tariff 
to a more auspicious day. 

Then was seen an enchanting exhibition of political principle! 
Which of these two bills, O reader, innocent and beloved, was most 
in accordance with Mr. Calhoun's new opinions ? Which of them 
could he most consistently have supported ?. Not Mr. Clay's, you 
will certainly answer. Yet it was Mr. Clay's bill that he did sup- 
port and vote for ; and Mr. Clay's bill was carried by the aid of his 
support and vote. If this course does not prove that Mr. Calhoun 
was a " coward and a conspirator," it does prove, I think, that he 
was not a person of that exalted and Roman-toga cast, which he 
set up to be, and which he enacted, for some years, with considera- 
ble applause. The nullifiers in Congress could have carried the 
Verplanck Bill if they had given it a frank and energetic support. 
They would have carried it, if the ruling motive of their chief had 
been purely patriotic. 

Mr. Calhoun left Washington, and journeyed homev.ard post- 
haste, after Congress adjourned. "Traveling night and day, by 
the most rapid public conveyances, he succeeded in reaching 
Columbia in time to meet the convention before they had taketl any- 
additional steps. Some of the more fiery and ardent members 
were disposed to complain of the compromise act, as being only a 



183o.] NULLI'FICATION. 415 

half-way, temporizing measure ; but when his explanations were 
made, all felt satisfied, and the convention cordially approved of his 
course. The nullification ordinance was repealed, and the two par- 
ties in the state abandoned their organizations, and agreed to for- 
get all their past differences." So the storm blew over. 

One I'einarkable result of the pacification was, that it strengthened 
the position of the leading men of both parties. The course was 
cleared for Mr. Van Buren. The popularity of the president 
reached its highest point. Mr. Calhoun was rescued from peril, 
and a degree of his former prestige was restored to him. The col- 
lectors of political pamphlets will discover that, as late as 1843, he 
still had hopes of reaching the presidency by uniting the South in 
his support, and adding to the united South Pennsylvania. With 
too much truth he claimed, in subsequent debates, that it was the 
hostile attitude of South Carolina which alone had enabled Mr. 
Clay to carry his compromise. 

Mr. Clay, as many readers may remember, won great glory at the 
North by his course during the session of 1833. He was received 
in New York and New England, this year, with that enthusiasm 
which his presence in the manufacturing states ever after inspired. 
The warmth of his reception consoled him for his late defeat at the 
polls, and gave new ho2:)es to his friends. 

But the Colossus of the session was Daniel Webster, well named, 
then, the expounder of the constitution. In suppoiting the ad- 
ministration in all its anti-nullification measures, he displayed his pe- 
culiar powers to the greatest advantage. The subject of debate was 
the one of all others the most congenial to him, and he rendered 
services then to his country to which his country may yet recur 
with gratitude. " Nullification kept me out of the Supreme Court 
all last winter," he says in one of his letters in 1833, He mentions, 
also, that the president sent his own carriage to convey him to the 
capitol on one important occasion. After the adjournment he 
visited the great West, where he was welcomed with equal warmth 
by the friends and the opponents of the administration. 

Perhaps it is not extravagant to say, that the net result to the 
ITnited States of the nullification of 1832, and a result worth its 
cost, was the four exhaustive propositions into which Mr. Webster 
condensed his opinions respecting the nature of the compact which 
unites these states : 



416 LITE OF ANDKEW JACKSOJS^. [1833. 

" 1. That the constitution of the United States is not a league, 
confederacy", or compact, between the people of the several states 
in their sovereign capacities ; but a government proper, founded on 
the adoption of the people, and creating dyect relations between 
itself and individuals. 

" That no state authority has power to dissolve these relations ; 
that nothing can dissolve them but revolution ; and that, conse- 
quently, there can be no such thing as secession Avithout revolu- 
tion. 

" 3. That there is a supreme law, consisting of the constitution of 
the United States, acts of Congress passed in pursuance of it, and 
treaties ; and that, in cases not capable of assuming the character of 
a suit in law or equity. Congress must judge of, and finally inter- 
pret, this siq^reme law, so often as it has occasion to pass acts of 
legislation ; and, in cases capable of assuming, and actually assum- 
ing, the character of a suit, the Supreme Court of the United States 
is the final interpreter. 

" 4. That an attemjDt by a state to abrogate, annul, or nullify an 
act of Congress, or to arrest its operation within her limits, on the 
ground that, in her opinion, such law is unconstitutional, is a direct 
usurpation on the just powers of the general government and on 
the equal righ'ts of other states ; a plain violation of the constitution, 
and a proceeding essentially revolutionary in its character and 
tendency." 

When all was over. General Jackson wrote that letter to the Rev. 
A, J. Crawford, of Georgia, which recent events have rendered the 
most celebrated of all his Avritings. May 1st, 1833, is the date of 
this famous production : 

" I have had," wrote the president, " a laborious task here, but 
nullification is flead, and its acto)-s and coui'tiers will only be re- 
.1 lembered by the people to be execrated for their wicked designs 
to sever and destroy the only good government on the globe, and 
that prosperity and happiness we enjoy over every other portion 
of the world. '^Ilaman's gallows ought to be the fate of all such 
ambitious men who would involve the country in civil war, and all 
the evils in its train, that they might reign and ride on its Avhirl- 
winds, and direct the storm. The free people of the United States 
have spoken and consigned these wicked demagogues to their 
proper doom. Take care of your nullifiers you have among you. 



1833.J NULLIFICATION. 417 

Let them meet the indignant froAvns of every man who loves his 
country. The tariif it is now well known was a mere pretext. Its 
burthens were on your coarse woolens ; by the law of July, 1832, 
cojir.se woolens was reduced to five per cent for the benefit of the 
South. Mr. Clay's bill takes it up, and closes it with woolens at 
fifty per cent., reduces it gradually down to twenty per cent., and 
there it is to remain, and Mr. Calhoun and all the nullifiers agree to 
the principle. The cash duty and home valuation will be equal to 
fifteen per cent, more, and after the year 1842 you will pay on coarse 
w^oolens thirty-five per cent. If this is not protection, I cannot un- 
derstand. Therefore the tariff was only the pretext, and disunion 
and a southern confederacy the real objec^t. The next pretext will 
he the negro or the slavery question.'''' 

Genei-nl Jackson passed his sixty-sixth birthday in the spring of 
1833, He stood then at the highest point of his career. Opposi- 
tion was, for the moment, almost silenced ; and the whole country, 
except South Carolina, looked up to him as to a savior. He had but 
to go quietly on daring the remaining years of his term, making no 
new issues, provoking no new controversies, to leave the chair of 
state more universally esteemed than he was when he assumed it. 
Going quietly on, however, was not his forte. A storm was al- 
ready brewing, compared with which the excitements of his first 
term were summer calms. 

It may be convenient just to mention here — reserving explanations 
for another page— that three important changes in the cabinet oc- 
curred in the month of May, this year. Mr. Livingston, the secre- 
tary of state, left the cabinet to go out as embassador to France, in 
the hope of peacefully arranging the spoliation imbroglio. Mr. Louis 
McLane, the secretary of the treasury, was advanced to the depart- 
ment of state. William J. Duane, a distinguished lawyer of Pliila- 
delphia, son of the president's old friend. Colonel Duane, of the far- 
fnmed Aurora^ was appointed secretary of the treasury. This ap- 
pointment was the president's own. Strongly attached to Colonel 
Duane, and having the highest opinion of his talents and integrity, 
General Jackson Avas accustomed, when speaking of his son, to ex- 
haust compliment by saying, " He's a chip of the old block, sir." 
So he took him into his cabinet. Mr. Duane was a conscientious 
opjionent of the Bank of the United States, and a democrat of the 
Jeifersonian school. 
18* 



418 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833. 

The greatei' part of this summer was spent by General Jackson 
in traveling — in drinking deep draughts of the bewildering cup of 
adulation. 

On the sixth of May, 1833, the president, accompanied by mem- 
bers of his cabinet, and by Major Donelson, left the capital, in a 
steamboat, for Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he was to lay the 
corner-stone of that monument to the mother of Washington which is 
still unfinished. At Alexandria, where the steamer touched, there 
came on board a Mr. Randolph, late a lieutenant in the navy, who 
had been recently dismissed the service. Randolph made his way 
to the cabin, where he found the president sitting behind a table 
reading a newsjoaper. He approached the table, as if to salute the 
president. 

" Excuse my rising, sir," said the general, who was not acquaint- 
ed with Randolph. " I have a pain in my side which makes it dis- 
tressing for me to rise." 

Randolph made no reply to this courteous • ajDology, but appear- 
ed to be trying to take oif his glove. 

" Never mind your glove, sir," said the general, holding out his 
hand. 

At this moment, Randolph thrust his hand violently into the 
president's face, intending, as it appeared, to pull his nose. The 
captain of the boat, who was standing by, instantly seized Ran- 
dolph, and drew him back. A violent scuffle ensued, during which 
the table was broken. The friends of Randolph clutched him, and 
hurried him ashore before many of the passengers knew what had 
occurred, and thus he effected his escape. The' passengers soon 
crowded into the cabin to learn if the general was hurt. 

"Had I known," said he, "that Randolph stood before me, I 
should have been prepared for him, and I could have defended my- 
: elf No villain," said he, " has ever escaped me before ; and he 
would not, had it not been for my confined situation." 

Some blood was seen on his face, and he was asked whether he 
had been much injured ? 

"No," said he, "I am not much hurt; but in endeavoring to 
rise I have wounded my side, which now pains me more than it 
did." 

One of the citizens of Alexandria, who had heard of the outrage, 
addressed the general, and said : " Sir, if you will pardon me, in 



1833.] NULLIFICATION. 419 

case I am tried and convicted, I will kill Randolph for this insult to 
you, in fifteen minutes !" 

" Xo, sir," said the president, " I can not do tliat. I want no 
man to stand between me and my assailants, and none to take re- 
venge on my account. Had I been prepared for this cowardly vil- 
lain's approach, I can assure you all that he would never have the 
temerity to undertake such a thing again." 

Randolph published statements in the newspapers of the 
" wrongs " which he said he had received at the hands of the gov- 
ernment. The oj^position papers, though condemning the outrage, 
did not fail to remind the president of certain passages in his own 
life and conversation which sanctioned a resort to violence. Ran- 
dolph, I believe, was not j^rosecuted for the assault. His friends 
said that his object was merely to pull the presidential nose, which, 
they further declared, he did. 

Returning from Fredericksburg, after performing there the pious 
duty assigned him, the president, early in June, accompanied by 
Mr. Van Buren, Governor Cass, Mr. Woodbury, Major Donelson, 
Mr. Earl, and others, began that famous tour which enabled the 
North to express its detestation of nullification, and its approval of 
the president's recent conduct. Baltimore, Philadelphia, Nfew 
York, Newark, Elizabethtown, Boston, Salem, Lowell, Concord, 
Newport, Providence, each received the president with every dem- 
onstration of regard which ingenuity could devise. Every one 
in the United States knows' how these things are done. Every one 
can imagine the long processions ; the crowded roofs and windows ; 
the thundering salutes of artillery ; steam-boats gay with a thousand 
flags and streamers ; the erect, gray-headed old man, sitting on his 
horse like a centaur, and bowing to the wild hurrahs of the Unterri- 
fied A^'ith matchless grace ; the rushing forward of interminable 
crowds to shake the president's hand ; the banquets, public and pri- 
vate ; the toasts, addresses, responses ; and all the other items of 
the price which a popular hero has to pay for his popularity. 



420 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. • [1833. 

CHAPTER XL. 

KEMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 

General Jackson recommended Congress, in his message of 
December, 1832, to sell out the stock held by the United States in 
the great bank, and to investigate again the condition of the bank, 
with a view to ascertain wliether the public deposits were safe in 
its keeping. This intimation of the bank's insolvency caused a fall 
of six per cent, in the market price of its stock. In Congress, how- 
ever, the institution was still so strong that the proposition to sell 
out the public stock, and the resolution implying a want of confi- 
dence in the bank's solvency, were voted down by immense jiiajor- 
ities. Congress evidently regarded the recommendations of the 
message of 1832 as the offspring of an implacable enmity, which 
^even victory had not been able to soften. 

Congress had baffled the president, but could not divert him from 
his purpose. Three fixed ideas wholly possessed his mind : First, 
that the bank was insolvent ; secondly, that the bank was steadily 
engaged in buying up members of Congress ; thirdly, that the bank 
would certainly obtain a two-thirds majority at the very next ses- 
sion unless he, the president, could give the institution a crippling 
blow before Congress met. 

The reason why the president thought the bank insolvent must 
be briefly explained. In March, 1832, the secretary of the treasury, 
Mr. McLane, informed Mr. Biddle of the government's intention to 
pay off, on the first of July, one-half of -the three per cent, stock, 
which would amount to six millions and a half of dollars ; but add- 
ed, " if any objection occurs to you, either as to the amount or mode 
of payment, I will thank you to suggest it.'' An objection did oc- 
cur to Mr. Biddle, and he went J:o Washington for the purpose of 
making it known to the secretary of the treasury. So far as the 
bank is concerned, said Mr. Biddle, there is no objection whatever. 
But, added he, the payment of so large a sum, several millions of 
which will immediately leave the- country on account of the foreign 
stockholders, will certainly embarrass the business men of the com- 
mercial centers. Duties to the amount of nine millions wer6 to be 



1833.] EKilOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 421 

paid before the first of July, ■\vhich could not be done unless mer- 
chants enjoyed rather more than less of the usnal bank accommoda- 
tion. Mr. Biddle advised the government to postpone the payment, 
therefore, and agreed to pay the interest on the amount Avhich 
would thus be left in the bank. The offer was accepted. The ar- 
rangement Avas beneficial to the bank, as it paid but three per cent, 
for the use of the money ; beneficial to the government, as it re- 
ceived as much interest as it paid the stockholders ; beneficial to 
the country, as it prevented a large sura from going abroad at a time 
Avlien it was pressingly needed at home. 

It excited surprise and remark at the time that Mr. Biddle should 
have gone to AYashington, in person, to arrange this postponement, 
instead of expressing his views by letter. But the truth was, as the 
directors explained, that " the letter of the secretary was received 
so immediately before the period fixed for issuing the notice of pay- 
ment, that if any thing were to be done at all, it was to be done 
only by personal communication with the secretary, as there was 
no time for correspondence." 

A second time the extinguishment of the same stock Avas post- 
poned, Avhich the directors thus explained : " The resources of the 
goA'ernment Avere threatened Avith the greatest danger by the ap- 
pearance of the cholera, Avhich had already begun its ravages in 
iSTcAv York and Philadelphia, Avith every indication of pervading the 
Avhole country. Had it continued r.o it began, and all the appear- 
ances in July Avarranted the LeliLf of its continuance, there can be 
no doubt it Avould have jsrostrated all commercial credit, and seii- 
ously endangered the public revenue, as in New York and Phila- 
delphia alone, the demand on account of the foreign tliree per cents. 
Avas about five millions. The bank, therefore, made an arrangement 
Avith the foreign owners of this stock, to the amount of $4,175,- 
873 92, to leave their money in the country for another year, the 
bank assuming to pay the interest instead of the government. Hav- 
ing settled this, the bank resumed its usual facilities of business to 
the community." 

General Jackson, although he consented to the first postpone- 
ment, dreAv from Mr. Biddle's conduct, particularly his coming to 
Washington, the inference that the bank could not pay the three 
per cents., and Avas, in fact, an insolvent institution. " I tell you, 
sir," he Avould say, " she's broke. Mr Biddle is a proud man, and 



422 LIFE OF AX DREW JACKSON. [1833. 

he never would liave come on to Washington to ask me for a post- 
ponement if tl;e bank had had the money. Never, sir. The bank's 
broke, and Biddle knows it. Iler stock is not worth seventy-five 
cents on the dollar this rainnte." No argument could shake "this 
opinion ; and when, in 1842, the United States Bank of Penn- 
sylvania went to pieces, and brought ruin upon thousands, the 
comment of General Jackson amounted to this : " I told you so." 

If there is in existence any credible evidence that the bank of the 
United States was not solvent in 1833, or any credible evidence that 
the bank was then endeavoring to secui'e a recharter by unequivo- 
cally dishonorable means, I have not been able to disqpver it. Its 
complaisance to members of Congress may have been carried too 
far. It Avas not in human nature that it should not be. An institu- 
tion such as the Bank of the United States was in 1833, giving an 
honorable livelihood and social distinction to five hundred persons, 
can no more 2;o out of existence without a strugo-le, than a stronar 
man can die without a struggle in the prime of his poAvers. And 
this is really one of the weightiest objections against the existence 
of such an institution. A bank with a limited charter will as cer- 
tainly direct its energies to procure a renewal as an office-holder, 
under the rotation system, is chiefly concerned to obtain a reappoint- 
ment. He Avould gladly serve the people, if the people, in return, 
would secure his children's bread ; but, as the people Avill not do 
that, he seiwes his party, who will if they can. 

But a truce to disquisition. We liave noAv arrived at that meas- 
ure — fruitful of many disasters and of great eventual good — known 
as the removal of the dejDOsits. The caricatiirists of 1833 represent 
the president and his friends in the act of carrying huge sacks of 
. money from the Bank of the United States. In this sense the de- 
posits were never removed. The measure proposed by the presi- 
dent was not to remove the public money suddenly and in mass 
from the bank, but merely to cease depositing the public money in 
the bank, drawing out the balance remaining in its vaults as the 
public service required. The amount of public money in the bank 
had averaged nearly eight millions of dollars for some years past, 
Avhich sum was so much added to the bank's available capital. 

What a simple, what a harmless measure this appears ! Apd 
harmless it would have been, but for one lamentable circumstance. 
The government had not devised a proper place to which to transfer 



1883.] REMOVAL OF T H K DEPOSITS. 423 

• 

thepuhlic money. The sub-treasury had not yet been thought of, 
or only thoxight of. Tlie complete and eternal divorce whicri that 
shnpje expedient effected between bank and state, came too late to 
save the country from four years of most disastrous " experiment." 
The plan j^roposed in 1833 was, instead of depositing the public 
money in the Bank of the United States and its twenty-five branch- 
es, to deposit it in a similar number of state banks. What good 
could^be hoped from such a partial measure ? We cannot wonder 
that every .member of the cabinet, except two, besides some im- 
■portant members of the kitchen cabinet, and a large majority 
of the president's best friends, opposed ft from the beginning to 
the end. 

The measure occurved to the president while he was conversing, 
one day early in the year 1833, with Mr. Blair, of the Globe., who 
hated the bank only less than the president himself did. " Biddle," 
said Mr. Blair, " is actually using the people's money to frustrate 
the people's will. He is using the money of the government for 
the purpose of brealdng down the government. If he had not the 
public money he could not do it." 

The president said, in his most vehement manner : " He shan't 
have the public money. I'll remove the deposits ! Blair, talk 
with our friends about this, and let me know what they think 
of it." 

Mr. Blair complied with this request. He consulted several of 
the president's constitutional and unconstitutional advisers — among 
others, Mr. Silas Wright, of N"ew York. Every -man of them op- 
posed the removal, unless it were done by the authority of Con- 
gress. Mr. Wright was particularly decided in his opposition. He 
said that the withdrawal of the public money from the bank would 
compel it to curtail it§ business to such a degree, that half the mer- 
chants in the country would fail. Mr. Wright argued upon the 
subject as though the public money, instead of being deposited in 
the Bank of the United States, was about to be thrown into the sea. 
The real eifect of the removal — which was to stimulate the business 
of the country to the point of explosion — did not occur to him, nor 
to any one. 

In the course of a day or two, Mr. Blair informed the president 
that he had consulted the leading friends of the administration upon 
the measure jDroposed, and that they were all against it. " Oh," 



424 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833. 

said the president, with a, nonchalance that surprised the editor of 
the (xlobe, " my mind is made up on that matter. Biddlc shan't 
have the pubhc money to break down the public administraiion 
with. It's settled. My mind's made up." That was the only ex- 
planation he ever gave, in conversation, of his course with regard 
to the deposits. When letters of remonstrance reached him, hun- 
dreds in a day, his comment was ever the same : "Biddle shall not 
use the public money to break down the government." Th^ same 
idea runs through all his public papers on the subject. • 

It is not true, as has been a hundred times asserted, that Mr. 
William J. Duane v/as appointed secretary of the treasury for the 
purpose of removing the deposits. The post was offered him in 
December, 1832, when the president had not yet conceived the idea 
of removing them by an act of executive authority. Mr. Duane 
owed his appointment to the respect and affection which General 
Jackson entertained for his father and for himself. There was no 
intrigue or mystery about it. 

Mr. Duane from first to las£ objected to the removal of the de- 
posits, and, at length, refused point-blank to order their removal. 
He told the president that he was opposed to the new fiscal scheme 
utterly. He thought it unjust to dejaive the Bank of the United 
States of the deposits, because the bank paid the government a 
stipulated sum per annum for the use of the deposits. ••' Their con- 
tinuance is part of the contract" between the bank and the govern- 
ment. Their removal, he thought, would be most disrespectful to 
Congress, inasmuch as the house had declared the deposits safe in 
the keeping of the bank, by a vote of a hundred and nine to forty, 
and this so recently as the last session. Nor did he think that 
state banks of the first standing would accept the deposits on the 
conditions j)roposed; and in no othei's would, the public money be 
safe. Could not the government dispense entirely with the assist- 
ance of hanks ? Perhaps it could not. But he was of opinion that 
a matter so important as a radical change in the fiscal policy of the 
country was one which Congress alone had authority to regulate. 
Ere long Congress would be compelled, by the near expiration of 
the bank charter, to deliberate on the subject. To Congress it 
belonged ; to Congress it should be left. Moreover, if the state 
bank system failed, and Mr. Duane believed it would fail, the Bank 
of the United States would come before the country with an argu- 



1833.] REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 425 

nient so plausible and convincing- that it would probably be ablQ»to 
secure a renewal of its charter. 

Various letters passed between the president and the secretary, 
without producing upon either the effect desired. At length, on 
the twenty-third of September, the president sent a note to Mr. 
Duane, which concluded with the well-know words : " I feel my- 
self constrained to notify you that your further services as secre- 
tary of the treasury are no longer required." On the self-same 
day, Mr. Roger B. Taney, the Attorney-General, was appointed 
secretary of the treasury. Three days after, he signed the order 
which directed collectors and other government employes to de- 
posit the public money in the state banks designated in the order. 
The deed was done. The vacant attorney-generalship was filled by 
the appointment of Mr. Benjamin F. Butler, of New York, the 
townsman, law student, law partner, political pupil, friend and ad- 
mirer of Mr. Van Buren. 

In the new posture of affairs the bank was obliged to defend 
itself A voice from the bank parlor informs me that, upon learn- 
ing the intention of the government to remove the deposits, Mr. 
Biddle and the directors were undecided for some time Avhich of 
two courses to adopt. To curtail, or not to curtail — that was the 
question. A friend of Mr. Biddle, a gentleman of note in the 
financial world, advised him not to* curtail ; but to give the country 
a striking proof of the strength of the bank by rather enlarging 
its loans than lessening them. This plan, he urged, would also ren- 
der the sudden cessation of the bank in 1836 so paralyzing to the 
business of the country that the people would rise as one man, in 
the 2^f'isidential election of that year, and hurl from power the 
party tha^ would be supposed to have arrested the national pro- 
gress. Mr. Biddle was convinced by this reasoning. A circular 
letter to the cashiers of the twenty-five branches, ordering them to 
continue to their customers the usual accommodation, and even, in 
some cases, to increase their loans, was drawn up by Mr. Biddle. 
The gentleman before referred to (to whom the reader is indebted 
for this information) prepared the requisite twenty-five copies of 
tliis letter, folded them, superscribed them, and placed them in Mr. 
Biddle's hands, ready for the mail. 

The packet of circulars, however, was not sent to the jjost-office 
that evening. Perhaps it occurred to the president of the bank 



426 LIFK OF ANDREAV JACKSON. [1833. 

th^t the policy proposed would eiFect in 1836 a prostration of busi- 
ness so complete that the capital of the bank would be swallowed 
up in the general ruin. Whatever the reason may have been, the 
circulars were put into the fire instead of the mail, and a policy 
more prudent and obvious was adopted. The amount of public 
money in the bank on the first of October, 1833, was $9,891,000. 
The directors resolved -simply to curtail the loans of the bank to 
the extent of the average amount of public money held by it. 
This was done. It was done gradually. It was done no faster 
than the balance of public money diminished. 

This curtailment compelled a similar one on the pai't of many of 
the state banks, while the " pet banks," the new depositories of the 
public money, had not yet begun to reap the advantages of their po- 
sition. Hence it v:as that during the first six months of the opera- 
tion of the new system, there was a pressure in the money market — 
sharp, sudden, and severe — which caused many disastrous failures, 
general consternation, considerable distress, and tremendous outcry. 
Colonel Benton, in many a paragraph of rolling thunder, attributes 
the whole of this distress and alarm to the criminal contrivance of 
the monster bank. But he attributes the crash of 1837 to the same 
cause ! He dwells long upon the fact that, as late as fifteen months 
after the deposits ceased to be made in the Bank of the United 
States, there Avere still in its vaults three or four millions of the 
public money. He does not tell us that the contraction of the 
bank's loans ceased long before that time ; nor that the bank could 
not safely use money subject to instantaneous call ; nor that the 
public money' was left in the bank for purposes which could be 
more easilj'" imagined than safely avowed. Can any bank lose an 
eighth of its available capital without curtailing its business, or 
running imprudent risks ? 

On the 26th of December, Mr. Clay introduced his fiimous reso- 
lutions directly censuring the president for dismissing Mr. Duane 
and removing the deposits : 

" Hesolved, That by dismissing the late secretary of the treasury, 
because he would not, contrary to his sense of his own duty, remove 
the money of the United States in deposit with the Bank of the 
United States and its branches, in conformity with the president's 
opinion, and by appointing his successor to effect such removal, which 
has been done, the president has assumed the exercise of a power 



1833.] pKMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 427 

over the treasury of the United States not granted to him by the 
constitution and laws, and dangerous to the hberties of the people. 

" Hesolved, That the reasons assigned by the secretary of the 
treasury for the removal of the money of the United States, deposited 
in the Bank of the United States and its branches, communicated to 
Congress on the third of December, 1833, are unsatisfactory and 
insufficient." 

These resolutions, we may as well state at once, were eventually 
reduced to one, which read as follows : 

" Hesolved, That the president, in the late executive proceedings, 
in relation to the public revenue, has assumed upon himself author- 
ity and power not conferred by the constitution and laAvs, but in 
derogation of both." 

The speech delivered by Mr. Clay, in support of his resolutions, 
was exasperating to General Jackson in the highest degree. He 
accused the president of an " open, ])alpable, and daring usurpation." 
After having assumed all the other powers of the government, ex- 
ecutive, legislative, and judicial, he had ended by seizing the public 
purse, as Caesar had seized the treasury of Rome. " For more than 
fifteen years," said Mr. Clay, "I have been struggling to avoid the 
present state of things. I thought I perceived, in some proceedings, 
during the conduct of the Seminole war, a spirit of defiance to the 
constitution and to all law. With what sincerity and truth — with 
•svliat earnestness and devotion to civil liberty — I have struggled, 
the Searcher of all human hearts best knows. With what fortune, 
tho bleeding constitution of my country now fiitally attests." 

Mr. Calhoun, if possible, surpassed Mr. Clay in the vehemence 
of his denunciations. He said that the plundering of the Roman 
treasury by Julius Cassar was a virtuous action, compared with the 
recent conduct of Andrew Jackson. " T/iaf,^'' said Mr. Calhoun, 
" Avas a case of an intrepid and bold warrior, as an open jjlunderer 
seizing forcibly the treasury of the country, which, in that republic, 
as well as ours, was confined to the custody qf the legislative depart- 
ment of the government. The actors in our case are of a difierent 
character — artful, cunning, and corrupt politicians, and not fearless 
warriors. They have entered the treasury,- not sword in hand, as 
public plunderers, but, with the false keys of sophistry, as pilferers, 
under the silence of midnight. The motive and the object are the 
same, varied in Hke manner by circumstances and character. ' With 



428 • LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON.. [1833. 

money I will get men,^ncl. with men money,' was the maxim of the 
Roman plunderer. With money we will get partisans, with parti- 
sans votes, and with votes money, is the maxim of our public pil- 
ferers." 

Mr. Webster opposed the removal of the deposits, and supported 
Mr. Clay's resolution, in terms less offensive to the president than 
these, but not less decided and forcible. After a debate of three 
months' continuance, seldom interrupted, Mr. Clay's resolution of 
censure was passed in the senate by a vote of twenty-six to twenty. 
Another barren victory. Three weeks later, the president sent to 
the senate an elaborate protest against the resolution, and asked that 
it be entered upon the journal. Another month was consumed in 
debating the question whether or not the senate should comply with 
the president's request. At length, by a vote of twenty-^even to 
sixteen, the protest was disposed of by the passage of four resolu- 
tions, of which the last two contain the substance : 

" Resolved., That the aforesaid protest is a breach of the privi- 
leges of the senate, and that it be not entered on the journal. 

" Mesolved, That the president of the United States has no right 
to send a protest to the senate against any of its proceedings." 

Thus nearly ^\e months of the session were chiefly consumed in 
an affair Avhich neither had any results nor could be rationally ex- 
pected to have any. Even the resolution of censure, impotent and 
harmless as it was, was not suffered to repose in peace upon the 
record. It had been scarcely entered upon the journal before 
Colonel Benton gave notice of a resolution to expunge it ; and from 
that hour, a leading object of his senatorial labors was to j^rocure 
the passage of his expunging resolution. 

The president, during these mad months, was as immovable as 
the Crag of Fergus, whence he sprang. " I was accustomed," says 
Colonel Benton, " to see him often during that time, always in the 
night (for I had no time to quit my seat during the day) ; and never 
saw him appear more truly heroic and grand than at this time. He 
was perfectly mild in his language, cheerful in his temper, firm in his 
conviction, and confident in his reliance on the power in which he 
put his trust. I have Seen him in a great many situations of peril, 
and even of desperation, botli civil and military, and always saw 
him firmly relying upon the success of the right through God and 
the people, and never saw that confidence more firm and steady 



1833.] REMOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS. 429 

than now. After giving him an account of the day's proceedings, 
talking over the state of the contest, and ready to return to sleep a 
little and p;ei)are mucli for the combats of the next dayj he would 
usually say: ' We shall whip them yet. The people will take it up 
after a while.' But he also had good defenders present, and in 
both houses, and men who did not confine themselves to the defen- 
sive." 

Far from it. Colonel Benton informs his readers that he himself 
spoke thirty times, during the session, on the one topic of debate. 

It became the custom, as the excitement increased, for great 
petitions to be conveyed to Washington by imposing deputations of 
distinguished citizens, some of which sought the presence of the 
president, and laid tlieir griefs before him. The adventures of one 
of these deputations, a fiiendly informant, who witnessed their in- 
terview with the president, enables me to relate. The petition of 
the New York merchants, bearing six thousand signatures (all ob- 
tained by the labors and money of Mr. Biddle's devoted adherents), 
was intrusted to the care of a deputation of great bankers and great 
merchants, headed by Mr, James G. King. When these Avorthy 
gentlemen entered the office of the president, at the White House, 
they discovered him seated at a table writing, with a long pipe in 
his mouth, which rested on the table and revealed the intensity of 
the president's interest in his work, by the volumes of smoke which 
gushed from its blackened bowl. 

" Excuse me a moment, gentlemen," said the president, half 
rising, and bowing to the group. "Have the goodness to be 
seated." 

In a few minutes he pushed back his paper, rose and said : 

" Now gentlemen, what is your pleasure with me ?" 

The members of the deputation were introduced to the president 
by the gentleman whose recollections of the scene I am now record- 
ing. Mr. King then began, in his usual deliberate and dignified 
maimer, to state the object of the interview, which was to inform 
the president of the embarrassments under which the merchants of 
New York were laboring, and to ask such relief as the executive 
alone was supposed to be able to afford. Mr. King had uttered 
only a few sentences of the address which he had meditated, when 
the president interrupted him with an irrelevant question. 

"Mr. King, you are the son of Rufus King, I believe?" 



430 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSOK. [1833. 

" I urn, sir," was the reply. 

Whereupon the president broke into a harangue which aston- 
ished the grave and reverend seigniors to whom it was addressed. 

"Well, sir," said the president, " Rufus King was always a 
federalist, and I suppose you take after him. Insolvent do you 
say ? What do you come to me for, then ? Go to Nicholas 
Biddle. We have no money here, gentlemen. Biddle has all the 
money. He has millions of specie in his vaults, at this moment, 
lying idle, and yet you come to me to save you from breaking. I 
tell you, gentlemen, it's all politics." 

He continued to speak in a strain like this for fifteen minutes, de- 
nouncing Biddle and the bank in the manner usual with him, and 
gradually working himself up to a high degree of excitement. lie 
laid doAvn his pipe ; he gesticulated wildly ; he walked up and 
down the room ; and finished by declaring, in respectful but unmis- 
takable language, that his purpose was unchangeable not to restore 
the deposits. He ceased, at length. The deputation, correctly sur- 
mising that their mission was a fiiilure, rose to i-etire, and were dis- 
missed by the president with the utmost politeness. The gentle- 
man v/ho had introduced the deputation left the apartment with 
them, but was overtaken by a messenger, as he Avas descending the 
stairs, who informed him that the president wished him to return. 
He accordingly went back to the ofiice, where he found the president 
exulting over the result of the interview. " Didn't I manage them 
well?" he exclaimed. The only object of the president in calling 
him back was to enjoy a chuckle with him over the scene that had 
transpired. 

Upon retiring to their hotel, the deputation deliberated upon 
what was to be done next. They concluded to take the president's 
advice, and go to Mr. Biddle. Before they had reached Philadel- 
phia, however, a hint of their -intention was conveyed to the presi- 
dent of the bank, who retired to Andalusia, his country-seat on the 
Delaware. When the deputation called, therefore, Mr. Biddle was 
" out of town." 

A floating paragraph of the day, which I cannot ti-ace to any re- 
sponsible source, stated, that to one of the deputations the president 
addressed the following language : " In the name of God, sir ! what 
do the people think to gain by sending theii- memorials here? If 
they send ten thousand of them, signed by all the men, women, and 



1833.] REMOVAL OK THE DEPOSITS. 431 

cbilclreii in the laud, and bearing the names of all on the gravestones, 
I will not relax a panicle from my position." 

It was offidaily announced in the Globe^ soon after, that the 
president would receive no more deputations sent to Washington 
to converse with him on questions relating to the currency. 

The last few days of the session were signalized by events that 
amounted almost to a second disruption of the cabinet. Tiie reader 
is aware that Mr. McLane, the secretary of state, had opposed the 
recent currency measures of the president, from their inception to 
their consummation. He had, for a whole yeai-, desired to resign, 
and on more than one occasion had resolved to do so, and, I believe, 
had once actually penned a letter of resignation. He was dissuaded 
from resigning by the politicians surrounding the president, who 
remembered well the disruption of 1831, and shuddered at the pos- 
sible eflects of a second on the fortunes of the party. Mr. McLane, 
however, as we have before hinted, indulged presidential aspir- 
ations. He believed that the people would not sustain the late 
measures, and deemed it unjust that he should share the odium of 
acts which he had done his utmost to prevent. He wavered long 
between contending attachments and desires ; but a few days before 
the adjournment of Congress, he resigned his place, and retired to 
private life, the Globe declaring that though the secretary and the 
president had diftered in opinion, they parted friends. Mr. John 
Forsyth, of Georgia, the particular friend and defender of Mr. Van 
Buren, was appointed to the vacant place. 

The new secretary of the treasury, Mr. Taney, had not yet been 
confirmed by the senate. The president, knowmg well Avhat would 
happen when the nomination should be submitted to the action of a 
hostile senate, held back his name until the last week of the session. 
June 23d, the nomination was sent in, and instantly rejected by a 
vote of thirty to fifteen. 

The nomination of Mr. Butler to the attorney-geueralsliip was 
confirmed. Mr. Woodbury was soon gratified by the promotion he 
had longed for, in being appointed to the place from which Mr. 
Taney was compelled to retire. The navy department was assigned 
to Mr. Mahlon Dickerson, once governor of Xew Jersey, and for 
sixteen years a representative of that state in the senate of the 
United States. 

As a part of the histoi'y of the removal of the deposits, we may 



432 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1833. 

add an incident or two of tlie subsequent career of Mr. Taney. In 
1835, a vacancy occurred on the bench of the Supreme Court by 
the resignation of one of the associate justices. A place upon that 
bench had been the dream of Mr. Taney"'s Hfe, from youth to middle 
age. General Jackson sent his name to the senate for confirmation 
to the vacant seat. The senate, of which a majority was still hostile to 
the administration, did not so much as deign to notice the nomina- 
tion. Before Congress again assembled, the death of Chief-Justice 
Marshall left vacant the highest judicial place in the president's gift. 
The long service of Justice Stor}^ his great ability, worth, and rep- 
utation, his early championship of the republican party in Ne:w 
England, the known wish of the late chief-justice, all combined to 
designate him as the rightful successor to the vacant seat. The 
president nominated Mr. Taney, and the senate, wherein then the 
administration commanded a majority, confirmed the nomination. 

On the last day of June, after a session of seven wasted months, 
Congress adjourned, leaving the president as completely master of 
the situation as he was before it convened. 

As the commercial embarrassments diminished, the clamor against 
the administration died away, and the fall elections demonstrated 
that the party in power had been shaken, but not seriously weaken- 
ed. There were opposition gains here and there, but the empire 
state tins year elected Marcy governor over Seward by a majority 
that surprised the democrats, and utterly disheartened the whigs. 
A stranger would have thought the administration lost beyond re- 
demption in April. In November, it was found that Hurrah for 
Jackson was still an argument against which nothing could prevail. 
In April, the grand jury of Rowan county, North Carolina, the 
county in which Andrew Jackson had studied law, '■^ pi'ese/itecr' the 
removal of the deposits as an act of usurpation, and the adminis- 
tration that had done the deed as profligate, proscriptive, and tyran- 
nical. In April, the leaders of the opposition could not stir abroad 
without incurring the risk of an ovation, and Mr. Biddle's casual 
l^resence in Wall street was the sensation of the day. In Novem- 
ber, the excitement was a thing of the past, and almost efl:aced from 
recollection by a new topic. 

Upon a calm i-eview of the consequences of transferring the pub- 
lic mouiy to the state banks, no person, who is both candid and 
disintcrL'oted, can hesitate to admit, I think, that the act was as 



1834.] THE FKENCII IMBROGLIO. 433 

unwise as it was precipitate and unnecessary. The state Lanks, as 
a senator remarked, " soon began to feel their oats." The expres- 
sion is homely, but not inapt. The extraordinary increase in the 
public revenue during the next two years, added immense sums to 
the available capital of those banks, and gave a new and undue im- 
portance to the business of banking. Banks sprang into existence 
like mushrooms in a night. The pet banks seemed compelled to 
extend their business, or lose the advantage of their connection with 
the government. The great bank felt itself obliged to expand or be 
submerged in the general inflation. It expanded twelve millions 
dilring the next two years. All the other banks expanded, and all 
men expanded, and all things expanded. It was the period of ex- 
pansion. 3Iany causes, as we all know, conspired to produce the 
unexampled, the disastrous, the demoralizing inflation of 1835 and 
1836; but I do not see any escape from the conclusion, that the 
incitimj cause was the vast amounts of public treasure that, during 
those years, were " lying about loose" in the deposit banks. Gen- 
eral Jackson desired a currency of gold and silv6r. Never were 
such floods of i^aper-money emitted as during the continuance of 
his own fiscal system. He wished to reduce the number and the 
importance of banks, bankers, brokers, and speculators. The yeafs 
succeeding the transfer of the deposits were the golden bienuium 
of just those classes. In a word, his system, as far as my small 
acquaintance Avith such matters enables me to judge, worked ill at 
every moment of its operation, and upon every interest of busmess 
and moi'ality. To it, more than to all other causes combined, we seem 
to owe the inflation of 1835 and 1836, the universal ruin of 1837, 
the dreary and hopeless depression of the five years following. 



CHAPTER XLL 

THE FRENCH IMBROGLIO. 

During the gigantic wars waged between England and Napo- 
leon, extensive spoliations were committed upon the cornmerce of 
the United States by both belligerents; but, Avhile the war of 1812 

J-0 



434 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [l 834. 

was supposed to have righted the wrongs committed by r>ritai!i, 
the French spoUations remained unutoned until the second term of 
General Jackson's presidency. Those spoliations were of a charac- 
ter singularly atrocious. In many well-authenticated cases, ships 
were confiscated only on the ground that they had been boarded by 
the officers of a British man-of-war. Other ships were confiscated 
because they had been forced by an armed vessel to enter an Eng- 
lish port. In some cases, American citizens were detained in France 
under the surveillance of the police, for months, because tliey were 
suspected of the crime, least j^ardonable by Napoleon, of being- 
English. 

From the time of the general peace, in 1815, until General Jack- 
sou's acces don to powei', the American government had sought com- 
pensation for these outrages in vain. The French government was 
brought to admit the justice of the clain-i., but disputed its amount, 
and exhibited that distaste for the discussion of the subject which 
men and governments generally manifest when the object sought of 
them is the payment of a stale debt. The first message of Pi-esi- 
dent Jackson announced his intention to press the afiair to a settle- 
ment. 

Louis Phili])pe was the cordial friend of the United States and 
an admirer of General Jackson. lie remembered his early Avander- 
ings in the American wilderness with a delight that was enhanced by 
his long imprisonment in the forms of a court. There was nothing 
about which he oftener conversed, or conversed more interestingly, 
than his youthful adventures among the wild woods and the wild 
men of the west. Under him, the negotiation for indemnity made 
such progress, that, on the 4th of July, 1831, a treaty was conclud- 
ed in Paris, and signed by Mr. Rives, which bound the French 
government to pay to the United States the sum of five millions of 
dollars, in six annual installments ; the first to be paid one year 
from the date of the ratification of the treaty. The treaty was rati- 
fied at Washington on the 2d of February, 1832. The first. ^install- 
ment, therefore, was due in Paris on the 2d of February, 1833. 

The affair was then supposed to be settled. So Uttle did Con- 
gress expect any further diificulty or delay, that it immediately, 
and as a niatter of course, passed a law providing for the appoint- 
ment of three commissioners to make an equitable division of the 
money among the various claimants. The commissioneis were to 



1 834.] THE FRENCH IMBliOGLIO. 435 

meet in June, 1833, and were to continue the labor of disiribution, 
if necessar}^ for three years, at salaries of three thousmul dqUars a 
year. The treaty of indemnity bound the United States to make 
certain reductions of the duties upon French wines, and a hiw in 
accordance with this stipulation was promptly passed by Congress. 
Nothing remained but for France to pay the mouey. 

The .2d of February, 1833, the day on which the first Ihstalfment 
was due at Paris, arrived. The administration deigned to employ 
the services of the United States Bank on this occasion, altliough 
even then the removal of the deposits was in agitation at tlie Wliite 
House. On the 7th of February, a draft upon the French minister 
of finance, drawn in favor of the cashier of the Bank of the United 
States, was signed by the secretary of the treasury. The Ameri- 
can charge des affaires notified the French Government, in due 
foi-m, that such a draft Avas on its way. This draft was purchased 
by the Bank of the United States, and its proceeds were imme- 
diately placed to the credit of the government The bank sold the 
draft to parties in England, who, on the 23d of March, presented 
it to the French minister of finance for payment. The minister 
informed the bearer of the draft, that no money had been appro- 
priated by the deputies for the American indemnity, and it could 
not be paid. The financial complication resulting from the non- 
payment of the draft, involving the English holders, the Bank of 
the United States and the American government, can be readily 
imagined. I spare the reader the recital of the j^resident's new quar- 
rel yviih the bank which arose when Mr. Biddle attempted to ad- 
just the matter with the secretary of the treasury. I will merely 
say, that the dishonoring of a bill in Paris drawn by the secretary 
of the treasury of the United States, was an event not calculated 
to lessen the disgust felt by General Jackson at the neglect of the 
French government to provide for the fulfillment of the treaty. 

It was a fault in the administration of General Jackson to leave 
the French mission A^acant at such a time ; but upon receiving the 
news that the draft of February, 1833, had been dishonored, the 
administration hastened to atone for its error in a striking manner. 
Mr. Edward Livingston, the Secretary of State, resigned his ofiice, 
accepted the appointment of minister to France, and was dispatched 
to his post in a national vessel. He was accompanied by his son- 
in-law, Mr. Thomas P. Barton, who was appointed secvotary of le- 



436 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. * [1834. 

giitioii. In October, 1833, Mr. Livingston presented his credentials 
to the king, Avho received him with particular cordiaUty,* " The 
king's answer to my address," wrote Mr. Livingston, " ^vtls long 
and earnest, -I can not pretend to give you the words of it, but, 
in substance, it was a warm expression of his good feeling toward 
the L^nited States, for the hospitality he had received there. As to 
the convention, he said, ' assure your government that unavoidable 
circumstances alone prevented its immediate execution, but it will 
be faithfully performed. Assure your government of this,' he re- 
peated ; ' the necessary, laws will be passed at the next meeting of 
the chambers. I tell you this not only as king, but as an individ- 
ual whose pronuse will be fulfilled.' " 

The king was mistaken, and Mr. Livingston was disappointed. 
At the next session of the chambers, the bill appropriating the 
money due to the L^nited States was lost by a majority of tivte — 
the muiister of finance himself voting against it ! The ministry 
in general not only would not stake their places upon carrying the 
measure, but gave it a languid support that invited and justified 
opposition. 

Tlie khig, there is every reason to believe, was sincerely desirous 
to pay the money. He expressed to Mr. Livingston great regret at 
the failure of the appropriation. He did more than that. In con- 
fidential conversations with the American minister he intimated 
clearly enough his opinion that the only v/ay left to induce the 
chamber to vote the money was for the president of the United 
States to insert a* passage in his next message which should show 
that the American government was in earnest in the matter, and 
AVMs resolved to insist upon the prompt payment of the indemnity. 
Mr. Livingston communicated these conversations to his govern- 
ment, and, accordingly, the message of 1834 contained a strong- 
passage respecting the unpaid indemnity. This message was pre- 
|»ared with unusual care, and was written with great ability. It 
gave a history, full and exact, of the late proceedings of the French 
legishiture : and concluded the discussion of the subject with five 
short and quiet paragraphs, which electrified two continents. 

The president said it was a principle of international law, that 
when one nation refused to pay a just debt, the aggrieved nation 
might " seize OJi the property''^ belonging to the citizens of the de- 
faulting nation. If, therefore, France did not pay the money at 






1834.] THE FRENCH IMBROGLIO. 437 

the next session of the chambers, the United States ouglit to delay 
no longei- to take by force what it could not get by negotiation. 
Nay, more. " Since France," said the president, " in violation of 
the pledges given through lier minister here, has delayed her final 
action so long that her decision will not probably be known in 
time to be communicated to this Congress, I recommend that a law 
be passed authorizirig reprisals tipon French property, in case pro- 
visions shall not be made for the payment of the debt at the ap- 
proaching session of the French chambers." 

Such words as these, I need scarcely say, were not such as the 
king of the French expected to read in the message. His idea of 
" strong language" and a " high tone" differed from that of General 
Jackson. When he suggested to Mr. Livingston to advise the 
president to employ strong language in speaking of the indemnity, 
he used tliose words in a European and diplomatic sense. Nothhig 
could be further from his" thoughts than such terms as "reprisals," 
*■'• seizures," " sequestration," and " takhig redress into our own 
JuuuTs." Members of General Jackson's own cabinet deemed the 
paragraphs quoted above needlessly irritating and menacing, but the 
general would not consent to abate a word of them. 

" No, gentlemen," he exclaimed, one day, during a kitchen-cabi- 
net discussion of the message, "I know them French. They won't 
pay luiless they're made to." 

Tlie French king, alive to all the importance of the subject, was 
so anxious to obtain the message at the earliest moment, that he 
sent a courier to Havre to await the arrival of the packet, and con- 
vey the document to Paris. Louis Philippe, therefore, received 
the message before it reached the American embassador, and was 
the first man in Paris who read it. I-^am enabled to state, that the 
king read the message with much surprise, but more amusement. 
He thought it a capital joke. He was amused at the interpi-etation 
put upon the advice he had given Mr. Livingston. The language 
of the message, which a Tennesseean deemed eminently moderate 
and dignified, sounded in the cabinet of the Tuilleries, like a fiery 
declaration of war. Upon the whole, however, the king was 
pleased and satisfied with the message, because he thought it cal- 
culated to produce the effect upon the deputies which he desired it 
should produce. 

The next day, the editors of Paris received their files of Ameri- 



438 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1834. 

can newspapers. The press of France under Louis Philippe was 
not the tool of despotism, which it must be under any man of Bona- 
partean lineage. With one voice, the Parisian newspapers, minis- 
terial, opposition, and neutral, denounced the message as an insult 
to Franco, so gross, that it would be infamy not to resent it. A 
clamor arose, the violence of which cannot be overstated. The ex- 
citement was increased when, shortly after, American newspapers 
arrived containing the extracts from Mr. Livingston's confidential 
correspondence which are alluded to above. Imagine the embar- 
rassment of the king, the disgust of the American minister, the 
exultation of the opposition, the indignation of the people, the com- 
ments of the press, upon the publication of dispatches which 
showed the king of the French attempting to gain influence in 
the chamber of deputies by inciting the president of the United 
States to act ujion its fears ! 

The French government, weak because -the king was weak, cow- 
ardly because the king was not brave, felt itself compelled to bow 
to the storm. The French' minister resident in Washington was 
immediately recalled, and Mr. Livingston was informed that pass- 
ports were at his disposal. The chambers were notified that diplo- 
matic intercourse between France and the United States had been 
suspended. A bill was introduced in the chamber by the minister 
of finance proposing to pay the money, provided the Congress of 
the United States should pass no hostile act in accordance with the 
president's hostile message. The minister explained to the chamber 
that the message was nothing more than the expression of the 
■president's individual opinion, and was not to be considered the 
act of the people until its recommendations had been adopted by 
their rejaresentatives in Congress. 

Mr. Livingston, instead of asking for the j^assports which had been 
offered him, determined to await the arrival, hourly expected, of the 
orders of his own government. He wrote, meanwhile, an eloquent 
and ingenious paper, addressed to the ministry, designed to show 
that the French people, had interpreted the message erroneously ; 
that it was a document written to heal, not widen the breach ; that it 
expressed a sincere and profound desire to avoid hostile measures ; 
that no man knew better than the president how unworthy and how 
hopeless were the attempt to extort from the fears of a brave and 
high-spirited nation Avhat could not be obtahied from its jusiice. All 



1835.] THE FRENCH IMBKOGLIO. 439 

tilis the king understood, and so did a majority of Lis cabinet. 
Tlie difficulty, then, was to allay the excitement of the people and 
silence the thunders of the press. 

Mr. Livingston received his dispatches from Washington — dis- 
patches written before General Jackson had heard of the recall of 
the French minister from the United States. The president ordered 
]Mr. Livingston, in case the money was not appropriated by the 
deputies at the winter session of 1835, to demand his passports and 
leave the country. 

The action of Congress upon the message was well calculated to 
soothe the pride of the French peo2)le, and ought, at once, to have 
terminated tlie difficulty. On the 14th of January, the senate, 
loitJioiit one dissentient voice, passed the following resolution: 

" -Resolved, That it is inexpedient, at present, to adopt any legis- 
lative measures in regard to the state of affiiirs between the United 
States and France." 

On no other occasion during the turbulent administration of Gen- 
eral Jackson, was the vote of the senate, upon an important ques- 
tion, unanimous. Resolutions of a similar character were presented 
in the house of representatives. On technical groimds, only, the 
house objected to suspend the rules for their reception. The pa- 
cific action of Congress had its effect ujjon the chamber of deputies. 
Li May, by a vote of 289 to 13V, the chamber passed a bill appro- 
pi'iating a sum sufficient to pay the three installments due upon the 
indemnity. L^nfortunately, a condition was annexed to the pay- 
ment of the money v,'hich the American government felt to be 
utterly inadmissible. The bill forbade the ministry to pay the in- 
stallments until the president had apologized for the language of the 
message of 1834 ! 

Mr. Livingston, after the passage of this bill, asked for his pass- 
ports, embarked on board the frigate Constitution, and returned to 
the United States, leaving behind him, as charge des affiairs, his 
son-in-law, Mr. Barton. 

Congress had adjourned when Mr. Livingston reacted the United 
States. A clause of an appropriation bill, giving the president 
the command of three millions of dollars, in case anything shoixld 
occur during the intermission to render an extraordinary expenditure 
necessary. Iiad been fortunately lost at the last moment of the 
session. The president was, therefore, still obliged lo rely upon 



440 LIFE OF ANDKEW JACKSON. [1835, 

the efficacy of words. Orders were immediately sent out to Mr. 
Barton to convey to the minister of finance a formal demand for the 
payment of the three installments overdue. The charge presented the 
demand accordingly. The minister replied that he was not author- 
ized to pay the money until the "formalities" enjoined by the 
chamber of deputies had been complied with on the part of the 
government of the United States. Mr. Barton communicated this 
refusal to his government. The president then directed the charge 
to demand of the French government its "•final determination," 
and, if the installments were not paid, to close the office of the le- 
gation, deposit its contents with the consul, and )-etnrn to the United 
States. 

Before the result of this last application was known to tlie presi- 
dent, Congress met, and the message had to be presented. The 
president recounted the history of the affiiir, informed Congress of 
the last orders sent to the charge, and promised another communi- 
cation as soon as Mr. Barton, or a dispatch from that gentleman, 
should arrive. Congress and the country were kept in painful sus- 
pense for six weeks awaiting the news that might forebode inevita- 
ble war. 

Mr. Barton received the final determination of the French gov- 
ernment, which was, not to pay the indemnity until the president 
had apologized. He set sail on his return home in December, 1835, 
and reatjhed jSTew-York, after a long voyage, in January, 1836. 

The French charge des afi'aires was ordered home, and all inter- 
course between the two governments ceased. Neither government 
could yield without destroying itself, and the j)eople of both coun- 
tries were In the temper that precedes and provokes hostilities. 

The darkest hour is just before the morning. The message of 
the president, announcing Mr. Barton's return, and vaguely allud- 
ving to the hostile movements of the French fleet, was sent to 
the capitol on the 18th of January. Three weeks later, Febru- 
ary 8th, the president, in a brief but pregnant message, informed 
Congress that the government of Great Britain had oftered its medi- 
ation, and that he had accepted the offer. He had, at the same time, 
notified the mediating power that the apology demanded by France 
was totally out of the question, lie recommended Congress to sus- 
pend proceedings upon the non-intercourse act, but to continue those 
jireparatiuns for defense which would become immediately necessary 



1835.] CLOSE OF THE ADMINISTKATION. 441 

if the mediation foiled. The president said that he "highly appre- 
ciated the elevated and disinterested motives" which prompted the 
offer of mediation, and that he relied much upon " the great influ- 
ence of Britain to restore the relations of ancient friendship between 
France and the United States." 

The affair was settled in a very few days. February 22d the 
president had the pleasure of informing Congress that France had 
accepted the offer of mediation as soon as it was made, and that 
there was every reason to hope for a speedy termination of the dis- 
pute. On the 10th of May he sent the following communication to 
the capitol : " Information has been received at the treasury depart- 
ment that the four installments under our treaty with France 

HAVE BEEN PAID TO THE AGENT OF THE UnITED StATES. Iu COm- 

muuicating this satisftictory termination of our controversy with 
France, I feel assured that both houses of Congress will unite Avith 
me in desiring and believing that the anticipations of the restoration 
of the ancient cordial relations between the two coimtries, expressed 
in my former messages on this subject, will be speedily realized. No 
proper exertions of mine shall be wanting to efface the remembrance 
of tijose misconceptions that have temporarily interrupted the 
accustomed intercourse between them." 

General Cass retired soon after from the war department, and 
went to represent the United States at the French court. The 
French minister resumed his residence in Washington. The people 
of the United States, when the danger of war was over, and the com- 
plete success of General Jackson became apparent, applauded his 
conduct with nearly as much unanimity as enthusiasm. In the 
newspapers of the opposition I find the warmest encomiums of the 
measures which secured the payment of the French indemnity. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

CLOSE OP THK ADMINISTRATIOK 

The eighth of January, 1835, was a proud day for the president, 
for on that day was celebrated at Washington the victory at New 
Orleans, and the payment of the last installment of the national debt. 
10* 



442 LIFE OP ANDREW JACKSON. [1835. 

A grand banquet was given in honor of the twofohl ti'itimph. Uj^on 
the removal of the cloth, Colonel Benton, who presided, delivered 
an exulting speech. " The national debt," he exclaimed, " is paid ! 
This month of January, 1835, in the fifty-eighth year of the republic, 
Andrew Jackson being president, the national debt is paid ! and the 
apparition, so long unseen on earth — a great nation without a nar 
tional debt ! — stands revealed to the astonished vision of a wonder- 
ing world ! Gentlemen," he concluded, " my heart is in this double 
celebration ; and I offer you a sentiment, which, coming direct from 
myown bosom, will find its response in yours : 

" President Jackson : May the evening of his days be as tran- 
quil and as happy for himself as their meridian has been resplendent, 
glorious, and beneficent for his country." 

But there is always some one to remind the most idolized man 
that he is mortal. If General Jackson was unduly elevated by the 
glorification which he received on the eighth of January, an event 
occurred on the thirtieth of the same month, which excited in his 
mind feelings of another character. On that day, the president, the 
cabinet, both houses of Congress, and a concourse of citizens, as- 
sembled in the hall of the house of representatives to take part in 
the funeral ceremonies in honor of a deceased member of the house 
from South Carolina. After the u&ual solemnities, a procession wa3 
formed to escort the body to the grave. The president, near the 
head of the procession, accompanied by Mr. Woodbury and Mr. 
Dickerson, had crossed the great rotunda of the capitol, and was 
about to step out upon the portico, when a man emerged from the 
croAvd, and, placing himself before the president, at the distance of 
eight feet from him, leveled a pistol at his breast, and pulled the 
trigger. The cap exploded with a loud report without discharging 
the pistol. The man dropped the pistol upon the pavement, and 
raised a second which he .had held in his left hand under his cloak. 
That also missed fire. The president, the instant he comprehended 
the purpose of the man, rushed furiously at him with laplifted cane. 
Before he reached liim. Lieutenant Gedneyof the navy had knocked 
the assassin down, and he was immediately secured and taken to 
jail. The president, boiling with rage, was hurried into a carriage 
by his friends and conveyed to the White House. For some days, 
his belief remained unshaken that the man had been set on to at- 
tempt his destruction by a clique of his political enemies. 



1836.] CLOSE OF THE ADMINISTRATION. 443 

The prisoner was proved to be a lunatic. His name was Law- 
rence. He was an Euglish house painter, who liad been long out 
of employment. Hearing, on all sides, that the country had been 
ruined by the measures of General Jackson, the [)roject of assassi- 
nating him had fastened itself in his crazy brain. Lawrence was 
placed in an asylum; and the affair, which, at first, had assumed 
liortentous importance, soon ceased to be a topic of remark. 

In 1836, Congress had again to grapple with an enormous and 
increasing surplus in the treasury. In dealing with it, the opposi- 
tion displayed the same want of wisdom which seems to me to have 
marked their conduct from the beginning to the end of General 
Jackson's administration. They made no attempt to lessen or pre- 
vent the surplus, because to have done that effectually they would 
have been compelled to adopt General Jackson's oft-repeated sug- 
gestions with regard to the public lands. It was speculations in the 
public lands that created the surplus. General Jackson's three 
simple and grand ideas with regard to the disposal of the public do- 
main had only to be enacted into a law, and the surplus had ceased. 
Sell the land, said the general, only to actual settlers; sell it in lim- 
ited quantities ; sell it at the bare cost of surveying and selling. A 
in(?nsure embodying these three principles would have laid the ax 
at the root of the difficulty. 

Consider, for a moment, the state of things at the time. On the 
1st of January, 1834, the banking capital of the country was two 
hundi'ed millions ; the bank-notes in circulation amounted to ninety- 
five millions ; the bank loans and discounts, to three hundred and 
twenty-four millions. On the 1st of January, 1836, the banking 
capital had increased to two hundred and fifty-one millions ; the 
paper issues, to one hundred and forty millions ! the loans and dis- 
counts to four hundred and fifty-seven millions ! Result — universal 
exi^ansion of business, and great increase in the price of all com- 
modities save one. That sole exception was the public land, the 
price of which was fixed by law at a dollar and a quarter per acre. 
Hence arose that mad speculation in the public lands which, in 
1835 and 1836, filled the treasury to overflowing Avith paper j^rom- 
ises-to-pay. 

It was in such a state of things that Congress entered ui)on the 
discussion of the question : What shall we do with the surplus rev- 
enue ? — a surplus, be it remembered, which was then dejiosited iu 



444 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1830. 

the state banks, and wliich had stimulated the business of the 
country to the alarming extent indicated above. The plan pro- 
posed by Mr. -Calhoun, adopted by Congress, and not vetoed by the 
jiresident, amounted to this : Let its deposit more of the public 
money vnth the states, and place it on permanent deposit, instead of 
temporary. 

The state deposit act of 1836 provided that the surplus -above five 
millions, at the end of every year, should be divided among the 
states ; that the states were to give to the federal goverrtment cer- 
tificates of deposit, payable to the United States ; that the secre- 
tary of the treasury could sell or assign these certificates whenever 
he needed the money to meet appropriations ; that the certificates, 
when sold or assigned, should bear an interest of five per cent. ; 
that the deposits not sold or assigned should bear no interest; 
and, finally, that deposits could be returned to the secretary of the 
treasury at the pleasure of any state holding them. This meas- 
ure was well described by Colonel Benton, when he said : " It is. 
in name, a deposit ; in form, a loan ; in essence and design, a dis- 
tribution." 

Congress sat this year until the fourth of July. Before the ad- 
journment, Colonel Benton, who, almost alone among the public 
men of the day, saw the ruin that awaited the country if the land 
speculations continued, attempted to introduce a measure to compel 
purchasers of public lands to pay for them in specie. The proceeds 
of the sales of public lands had Yvsenfroni four millions a year to 
five millions a quarter, and they were still on the increase. Colonel 
Benton's proposition met with no encouragement in a body, a ma- 
jority of whose members were interested in the very speculations 
which it Avas designed to check. One week after Congress ad- 
journed, the president, upon his own authority, against the known 
will of Congress, against the advice of a majority of his cabinet, 
issued that famous " Specie Circular," which ordered all land com- 
missioners, after a certain date, to reject paper money in payment 
of public lands, and to accept gold and silver only. 

The specie circular was eighteen months too late. Issued in the 
spring of 1895, it had saved the country. Issued in July, 1836, it 
could only precipitate the crash which had then become inevitable. 
Its chief ettect was to draw gold and silver fi-om the eastern to the 
western states, and the pressure in the money market, Avhich had 



1836.] CLOSE OF THE A D M I N I S T K A T I O N • 445 

already begun, increased from tliat time. It was severe during the 
autumn months; severer during the winter; severest in the spring. 
UnreHeved for a single week, the pressure increased steadily from 
May, 1836, until it ended in the stupendous ruin of May, 1837. 

In November, 1836, General Jackson beheld the consummation 
of his most cherished hopes in the election of Mr. Vau Buren to 
the presidency. Tennessee and Geoi-gia cast their votes for Judge 
White. South Carolina again threw her vote away upon a candi- 
date named in no other state — Willie P. Mangum. Massachusetts 
wasted her vote upon Daniel Webster. Harrison and Granger 
received the votes of Vermont, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, 
Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio — seventy-three. Mr. Yan Buren 
triumphed in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, 
New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Louisiana, Mis- 
sissippi, Elinois, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan — one hun- 
dred and seventy. There was no choice of vice-president by the 
people, as the votes of four states were given to Mr. Tyler. The 
senate, upon whom the election devolves in such cases, gave the 
office to Colonel Richard M. Johnson. 

Signs of coming revulsion in the woi-ld of business were so nu- 
merous and so palpable, durmg this year, that it is wonderful so 
few observed them. The short crops of 1836 and the paper infla- 
tion had raised the price of the necessaries of life to a point they 
had never reached before, and have never reached since. Floui 
was sold in lots, at fifteen dollars a barrel ; in single barrels, at six- 
teen ; in smaller quantities, at eighteen. The growing scarcity of 
money had already compelled manufacturers to dismiss many of 
their workmen ; and, thus, afr a anoment when financiers cherished 
the delusion that the country was prosperous beyond all previous 
example, large numbers of worthy mechanics and seamstresses were 
sufiering from downright want. It was during this winter of de- 
lirium and distress, that some vile demagogues in the city of New 
York promulgated from the steps of the City Hall, the lie that the 
higli i)rice of flour was caused by speculators, whose stores were 
said to be filled with flour, kept from the market in the expectation 
of its realizing a famine price. A mob of infuriated men, foreign- 
ers most of them, surrounded a great flour store in the lower part 
of the city, battered down the doors, rolled the barrels into the 
sti'cet, and destroyed or carried ofl" their contents, tor two or 



446 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1837. 

three days the city was kept in groundless tevroi' of a general up- 
rising of the distressed workingnieu, and a general spoliation of the 
provision stores. 

Business men were gasping all the winter for breath, but scarcely 
a man of them believed that the pressure was any thing but tem- 
porary and accidental. After a day of extraordinary stringency, 
the newspapers, in one chorus, would declare that then the worst 
was over ; the bottom had been touched ; relief was at hand. 
C/olonel Benton, who had so extolled the state of the currency m 
January, tells us that, in February, he knew that the grand crash 
was both inevitable and near. " It was in the month of February," 
says he, " that I invited the president elect into a committee room, 
and stated to him my opinion that we were on the eve of an ex- 
plosion of the paper system and of a general suspension of the 
banks — intending to follow up that expression of opinion with the 
exposition of my reasons for thinking so; but the interview came 
to a sudden and unexpected termination. Hardly had I expressed 
my belief of this impending catastrophe than he spoke up and said, 
'Your friends think you a little exalted in the head on that subject.' 
I said no more. I was mifled. We left the room together, talkhig 
on diiFei'ent matters, and I saying to myself, '■You toill soon /eel the 
thuiiderholt^ " 

To the last day of his residence in the presidential mansion, Gen- 
eral Jackson continued to receive proofs that he was still the idol 
of the people. The eloquence of the opposition had not availed to 
lessen his general popularity in the least degree. We read of one 
enthusiastic Jacksonian conveying to Washington, from New York, 
with banners and bands of music, a jji-odigious cheese, as a jaresent 
to the retiring chief. The cheese was four feet in diameter, two 
feet thick, and Aveighed fourteen hundred pounds — twice as large, 
said the Globe, as the great cheese given to Mr. Jefferson on a sim- 
ilar occasion. The president, after giving away large masses of liis 
cheese to his friends, found that he had still more cheese than he 
could consume. At his last public reception he caused a jiiece of 
the cheese to be presented to all who chose to receive one, an op- 
eration that tilled the White House with an odor that is pleasant 
only when there is not too much of it. Another ardent lover of 
the president gave him a light wagon composed entirely of hickory 
sticks, with the bark upon them. Another presentet.* an elegant 



1837.] IN KETIREHE^JT. 44V 

l)h!ieton, made of the Avood of the old frigate Constitution. The 
liickory Avagou the general left in "Washington, as a memento to 
his successor. The constitutional phaeton he took with him to the 
Hermitage, where I saAV it, faded and dilapidated, in 1858. 

The farewell address of the retiring president was little more 
than a resume of th& doctrines of his eight annual messages. The 
priceless value of the Union ; the danger to it of sectional agita- 
tion ; the evils of a splendid and powerful government ; the safety 
and advantages of plain and inexpensive institutions ; the perils of 
a surplus revenue ; the injustice of a high tariff; the unconstitu- 
tionality of that system of internal improvements which the Mays- 
ville veto had checked ; the curse of paper-money ; the extreme de- 
sirableness of a currency of gold and silver, were the leading topics 
upon which the president descanted. "My own race," said he, 
" is nearly run ; advanced age and failing health warn mo that be- 
fore long I must pass beyond the reach of human events, and cease 
to feel the vicissitudes of human affairs. I thank God that my life 
has been spent in a laud of liberty, and that he has given me a 
heart to love my country with tlie affection of a sou. And filled 
Avith gratitude for your constant and unwavering kindness, I bid 
you a last and affectionate farewell." 

General Jackson began his homeward journey on the third day 
after Mr. Van Buren's inauguration. " I saAV," says Benton, " the 
patriot ex-president in the car which bore him off to his desired 
seclusion. I saw him depart with that look of quiet enjoyment 
which bespoke the inward satisfaction of the soul at exchanging the 
cares of office for the repose of home." 



CHAPTER XLHI. 

IN RETIREMENT. 



Genekal Jacksox was seventy years of age when he retired 
from the presidency. He was a very infirm old man, seldom free 
from pain for an hour, never for a day. Possessed of a most beau- 
tiful and productive farm and a hundred and fifty negroes, he yet 
felt himself to .be a poor man on his return to the Hermitage. "I 



448 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1838. 

returned home," he writes to i\[r. Trist, " with just ninety dollars 
in money, having expended all my salary, and most of the proceeds 
of my cotton crop ; found every thing out of repair ; corn, and every 
thing else for the use of my farm to buy ; having but one tract of 
land besides my homestead, which I have sold, and which has en- 
abled me to begin the new year (1838) clear of debt, relying on 
our industry and economy to yiekt us a support, trusting to a kind 
Providence for good seasons, and a prosperous crop," 

During the next few years, he lived the life of a planter, carefully 
directing the operations of his farm, enjoying the society of his 
adopted son, and his amiable and estimable wife. They and their 
children were the solace of his old age. Major Donelson and his 
family were near at hand, and often cheered him by their presence 
at the Hermitage. Surrounded by a large and affectionate circle, 
he passed many happy days ; and most of his latter days would 
have been happy if he had not been frequently reduced by sickness 
to the condition of a helpless invalid. His early tastes remained 
with him. He still took the keenest delight in a flourishing cotton 
field, and loved a fine horse as much as he did when he brought 
home Trnxton from Virginia, thirty years before. 

The ex-president's interest in the fortunes of his party was 
scarcely diminished by his retirement from public life. He corre- 
sponded frequently with Mr. Van Buren, whose leading measures 
he heartily approved, and whose firmness against the greatest 
pressure ever brought to bear upon an administration he could not 
but admire. When, in 1840, the general poverty of the people and 
the renomination of General Harrison threatened the democratic 
party with defeat. General Jackson exerted himself powerfully to 
secure his friend's reelection. 

In August, 1840, Mr. Clay, in compliance with a pressing invita- 
tion, visited Nashville and addressed an immense assemblage upon 
the political topics of the day. His reception was enthusiastic m 
the very highest degree. Nine cheers, such as have seldom been 
given to any man in this country except to Henry Clay, greeted 
his rising. His allusions to General Jackson were apparently re- 
spectful, but were, in reality, calculated, and, pei'haps, Avere de- 
signed to be offensive to him. "It was true," said Mr. Clay, 
" that he had some reluctance, some misgivings, about making this 
visit at this time, which grew out of a supposition that his motives 



1838.] IN RETIREMENT. 449 

luiglit be. misconstrued. The relations Avhich ha 1 for a long time 
exislt'trbetween Mmsell'and the illustrious captain in this neighbor- 
hood, were well understood. He feared, if he accepted the invita- 
tion to make the visit now, that it might be thoi;ght by some that 
his motives were less patriotic than sinister or selfish. But he as- 
sured that great assemblage, that toward that illustrious individual, 
their fellow-citizen and friend, he cherished, he possessed no unkind 
feelings. He was a great chieftain ; he had fought well and 
bravely for his country ; he hoped he would live long and enjoy 
much happinesis, and, when he departed from this fleeting vale of 
tears that he would enter into the abode of the just, made perfect." 

Still harping on my Chieftain ! In Mr. Clay's sj^eech, as pub- 
lished in the authorized volumes, edited by Mr. Mallory, there is 
not one remafk respecting General Jackson or his public conduct 
which was not legitimate. Indeed the speech chiefly consisted of 
humorous and satirical comments upon the administration of Mr, 
Van Buren. He alluded, it is true, tt> the appointment of Mr. 
Livingston as seci'etary of state, with a remark that he was a dc-. 
faulter ; but he added, that he presumed " the president did not 
sufficiently reflect upon the tendency such an appointment would 
have." Other comments were made by Mr. Clay upon General 
Jackson's appointments, and upon the extraordinary and unexam- 
pled number of public officers who had recently become defaulters. 
The day after the delivery of Mr. Clay's speech. General Jackson 
sent to the Nashville Union a communication, in which he spoke 
of Mr. Clay as a " demagogue" roaming over the country " I'etailing 
slanders against the living and the dead." 

To this communication Mr. Clay made an immediate reply, giv- 
ing a correct outrme of his speech, and asserting that he had spoken 
of General Jackson and his measures only in proper and becoming 
terms. " With regard," he concluded, " to the insinuations and 
gross epithets contained in General Jackson's no^', alike impotent, 
malevolent, and derogatory from the dignity of a man Avho has 
filled the highest office in the imiverse, respect for the public and 
fv)r myself allow me only to say that, like other similar missiles, 
'they have fallen harmless at my feet, exciting no other sensation 
than that of scorn and contempt." 

The commercial disasters of 1837 and the depression that suc- 
ceeded had not seriously inconvenienced General Jackson, with his 



1 



450 LIFE OP A N I) r. E V,' JACKSON. [l S42. 

magniticeiit farm and his Inmdied and fifty uegrocs. He repeatedly 
expressed the opinion that no one failed in that great revulsion who 
ouglit not to have failed. Not the faintest suspicion that any measure 
of his own had any thing to do with it ever found lodgment in his mind. 
He laid all the blame upon Biddle, i)aper-money, and speculation. 

In 1842, when business men |,)egan once more to hojie for pros- 
perous seasons, and the country awoke from its long lethargy, 
General Jackson became an anxious and embarrassed man through 
the misfortunes of his son. Money was not to be borrowed in the 
\\estern country, even then, except at an exorbitant interest. He 
applied, in these circumstances, to his fast friend, Mr. Blair, of the 
Glohe^ who was then a man of fortune. Ten thousand dollars was 
the sum which the general deemed sufficient for his relief. Mr. 
Blair not only resolved on the instant to lend the money, but to 
lend it on the general's personal security, and to make the loan as 
closely resemble a gift as the general's delicacy would permit it to 
be. Mr. Rives desired to share the pleasure of accommodating Gen- 
eral Jackson, and the loan was therefore made in the name of Blair 
and Rives. Upon reading Mr. Blair's reply to his application, the 
old man burst into tears. He handed the letter to his daughter, 
and she, too, M'as melted by the delicate generosity which it re- 
vealed. General 'Jackson, however, would accept the money only 
on conditions which secured his friends against the possibility of loss. 

Not long after these interesting events, further relief was aftbrded 
General Ja9kson by the refunding of the fine wliich he had paid at 
New Orleans, in 1815, for the arrest of Judge Hall, and for re- 
fusing to obey the writ of habeas corpus issued by him. The fine 
was originally one thousand dollars, but the accumulated interest 
swelled the amount to twenty-seven lymdred. Senator Linn, of 
Missouri, introduced the bill for refunding the money, and gave it 
an earnest and persevering support. In the house the measure Avas 
strenuously supported by Mr. Douglass, of Illinois, and Mr. C. J. 
Ingersoll, of Pennsylvania, to both of whom General Jackson ex- 
pressed his gratitude in the warmest terms. The bill Avas passed 
in the senate by a party vote of twenty-eight to twenty — Mr. Cal- 
houn voting with the friends of the ex-president ; in the house, by 
one hundred and fifty-eight to twenty-eight. 

How much the religious tendencies of General Jackson were 
strengthened by the example of his wife, and how much more by 



J842.] IN RE TI RE ME NT . 451 

her alfecting death at the moment when he needed her most, we 
have ah-eady seen. He gave her his solemn promise to join. the 
church as soon as he had done with politics, and the letters wliich 
he wrote, during his presidency, to members of his own family, 
abound in rehgious expressions. The promise which he made to 
his wife, he remembered, but did not strictly keep. In August, 
1838, he wrote to one who had addressed him on the subject : " I 
would long since have made this solemn public dedication, to 
Almighty God, but knowing the wickedness of this world, and 
how prone many are to evil, that the scoffer of religion would liave 
cried out — ' hypocrisy ! he has joined the church for political eflect,' 
I thought it best to postpone this public act until my retirement to 
the shades of private life, when no false imputation could be made 
that might be injurious to religion." He passed two or three years, 
however, " in the shades of private life," before he p^forraed the 
act referred to in this letter. 

From the Rev. Dr. Edgar, pastor of an influential Presbyterian 
church in Nashville, I received the information which is now to be 
imparted to the reader. It Avas a sermon of Dr. Edgar's that pro- 
duced in General Jackson tlie state of mind that led to his connect- 
ing himself with the. church, and it was Dr. Edgar Avho administered 
to him his first communion. He is, therefoi'e, the source of trust- 
worthy information on this interesting subject. 

It was about the year 1839 that Dr. Edgar was first invited to 
the Hermitage for the purpose of administei'ing religious advice to 
its inmates. Mrs. Jackson, the amiable and estimable wife of the 
general's son, was sick in body and troubled in mijid. General 
Jackson invited his .reverend friend to call and see her, and endeavor 
to clear her mind of the cloud of perplexity and apprehension which 
hung over it. In the course of her conversation with the doctor, she 
chanced to say, in the general's hearing, that she felt herself to be 
" a great sinner." 

" You a sinner ?" interposed the general, " Avhy, you are all purity 
and goodness ! Join Dr. Edgar's church, by all means." 

This remark was considered by the clergyman a proof that, at that 
time. General Jackson w^as " blind" as to the nature of true rehgion. 
Soon after this interview Mrs. Jackson's anxiety was relieved, and 
she waited to join the church only for a suitable opportunity. 

Ere long a " protracted meeting" was held in the little church ou 



452 LIFE OF ANDKEW J A C K. S O X . * [1842. 

the Hermitage farm. Dr. Edgar conducted the exercises, and tlie 
family at the Hermitage were constant in their attendance. The 
last day of the meeting arrived, which was also the last day of the 
week. General Jackson sat in his accustomed seat, and Dr. Edgar 
preached. The subject of the sermon Avas the interposition of 
Providence in the affairs of men, a subject congenial with the habit- 
ual toile of General Jackson's mind. The preacher spoke in detail 
of the perils which beset the life of man, and how often he is pre-, 
served from sickness and sudden death. Seeing General Jackson 
listening with rapt attention to his discourse, the eloquent preacher 
sketched the career of a man who, in addition to the ordinary dan- 
gers of human life, had encountered those of the wilderness, of war, 
and of keen political conflict; who had escaped the tomahawk of the 
savage, the attack of his country's enemies, the privations and 
fatigues of border warfare, and the aim of the assassin. How is it, 
exclaimed the preacher, that a man endowed with reason and gifted 
Avith intelligence can pass thro\igh such scenes as these unharmed, 
and not see the hand of God in his deliverance ? While enlarging 
on this theme, Dr. Edgar saw that his words were sinking deep into 
the general's heart, and he spoke with unusual animation and im- 
pressiveness. 

The service ended. General Jackson got into his carriage, and 
was riding homeward. He was overtaken by Dr. Edgar on horse- 
back. He hailed the doctor, and said he wished to speak with him. 
Both having alighted, the general led the clergyman a little way 
into the grove. 

" Doctor," said the general, "I want you to come home with me 
to-night." 

" I can not to-night," was the reply ; " I am engaged elsewhere." 

" Doctor," repeated the general, " I want you to come home with 
me to-night." 

Dr. Edgar said that he had promised to visit that evening a sick 
lady, and he felt bound to keep his promise. General Jackson, as 
though he had not heard the reply, said a third time, and more 
pleadingly than before : 

" Doctor, I wa7it you to come home with me to-night." 

" General Jackson," said the clergyman, " my word is pledged ; 
I can not break it ; but I will be at the Hermitage to-morrow morn- 
ing vex'y early." 



1842.] IN^ KKTIREMENT. 453 

The anxious man was obliged to be contented witli this arrange- 
ment, and went home alone. He retired to his apartment. He 
Ijassed the evening and the greater part of the night in meditation, 
in reading, in conversing with his beloved daughter, in prayers. He 
was sorely distressed. Late at night, when his daughter left him, 
he was still agitated and sorrowful. What thoughts passed through 
his mind as he paced his room in the silence lof the night, of what 
sins he repented, and what actions of his life he wished he had not 
done, no one knows, or will ever know. 

As the day Avas breaking, light seemed to dawn upon his troubled 
soul, and peace fell upon him. 

To Dr. Edgar, who came to him soon after sunrise, General Jack- 
son told th§ joyful history of the night, and expressed a desire to be 
admitted into the church Avith his daughter that very morning. The 
usual questions respecting doctrine and experience Avere satisfacto- 
rily answered by the candidate. Then there Avas a pause in the 
conversation. The clergyman said at length : 

" General, there is one more question Avhich it is my duty to ask 
you. Can you forgive all your enemies ?" 

The question Ava« evidently unexpected, and the candidate Avas 
silent for a Avhile. 

" My political enemies," said he, "I can freely forgive; but as 
for those Avho abused me Avhen I Avas serving my country in the field, 
and those Avho attacked me /or serving my country — doctor, that 
is a diiferent case." 

The doctor assured him that it was not. Christianity, he said, 
forbade the indulgence of enmity absolutely and in all cases. No 
man could be received into a Christian church who did not cast out 
of his heart every feeling of that nature. It Avas a condition that 
Avas fundamental and indispensable. » 

After a considerable paxise the candidate said that he thought he 
could forgive all Avho had injured him, even those who had assailed 
him for AAdiat he had done for his country in the field. The clergy- 
man then consented to his sharing in the ceremonial of the morning, 
and left the room to communicate th6 tidings to Mrs. Jackson. She 
hastened to the general's apartment. They rushed witli tears into 
each other's arms, and remained long in a fond and silent embrace. 

The Hermitage church was crowded to the utmost of its small 
capacity ; the very Avindows were darkened' with the eager faces of 



454 LIFE or ANDREW JACKSON. [l843. 

the servants. After the usual services, the general rose to make the 
required public declaration of his concurrence with the doctrines, 
and his resolve to obey the precepts, of the church. He leaned 
heavily upon-his stick with both hands ; tears rolled down his cheeks. 
His daughter, the fair, young matron, stood beside him. Amid a 
silence the most profound, the general answered the questions pro- 
I)osed to him. When he was formally pronounced a member of the 
church, and the clergyman was about to continue the services, the 
long restrained feeling of the congregation burst forth in sobs and 
exclamations, which compelled him to pause for several minutes. 
The clergyman himself was speechless with emotion, and abandoned 
himself to the exultation of the hour. A familiar hymn was raised, 
in which the entire assembly, both within and without ihe churchy 
joined with an ecstatic fervor which at once expressed and relieved 
their feelings. 

From this time to the end of his life, General Jackson spent most 
of his leisure hours in reading the Bible, biblical commentaries, and . 
the hymn-book, which last he always pronounced in the old-fashioned • 
way, hime book. .The work known as " Scott's Bible " was his 
chief delight ; he read it through twice before he died. Nightly he 
read pi'ayers in the presence of his family and household servants. 
I say read prayers, for so I was informed by those who often heard 
him do it. But there has been published a description of the family 
worship at the Hermitage, which represents the general as deliver- 
ing an extempore prayer. 

The Hermitage church, after the death of Mrs. Jackson and the 
general's removal to Washington, had not been able to maintain 
itself; but the event which we have just related caused it to be re- 
organized. At one of the first meetings of the resuscitated church, 
Creneral Jackson was nominated a " ruling elder," 

" No," said he, " the Bible says, 'Be not hasty in laying on of 
hands.' I am too young in the church for such an office. My 
countrymen have given me high honors, but I should esteem the 
office of ruling elder in the church of Christ, a far higher honor than 

any I have ever received. I propose brother , and brother 

" (two aged neighbors). 

The misfortunes which had befallen his son induced General Jack- 
son, in 1843, to cancel a will which he had made several years before, 
and to prepare a new one. The first will bestowed a handsome 



1844.] IN RETIREMENT. 455 

legacy upon a favorite nephew ; the second left the entire estate to 
liis son in fee simple. In connection with this suliject, Major Lewis 
related to me some interesting particulars of an interview between 
himself and the ex-president, which occurred just after the execu- 
tion of the new wilL 

It was a beautiful morning in June. " Come, major," said the 
general, "it's a pleasant day, let us take a stroll." He seemed very 
wi-'ak, scarcely able to walk ; and had much difficulty in breathing. 
AfU'V walking a short distance, Major L'ewis advised him to return, 
but he would not. A second and a third time, the major enti'eated 
him to go no further. "No, major," he said, "I set out to show 
you my cotton fiehl, and I will go." They reached the field, at 
length, and sat down upon a stump to admire its flourishing appear- 
ance. Suddenly changing the subject, the general told his com- 
panion that he had made a new will, leaving his Avdiole estate un, 
conditionally to his son. Major Lewis ventured to remonstrate, and 
advised that a part of the property should be settled upon Mrs. 
Jackson and her children, enough to secure them against want in 
case his son's speculations should continue to be unsuccessful. 

" ISTo," said the general, after a long pause, " that would show a 
want of confidence. If she,'" pointing to the tomb in the garden, 
" were alive, she would wish him to have it all, and to me her wish 
is law." The new will, tlierefore, remained imaltered. 

" Extending the area of freedom" (to use his own language), by 
tlie annexation of Texas, was the last political project which occu- 
]'ied the thoughts and the pen of Andrew Jackson. In promoting 
this important jneasure he displayed an energy seldom exhibited, 
before or since, by a politician in his seventy-seventh year. 

For forty years or more General Jackson had cherished the de- 
sire to push the Spaniards further back from the western boundary 
of the United States. In Colonel Burr's fiUibustenng scheme of 
1806, so far as it related to the conquest of Texas, he had heartily 
sympathized, I think it no exaggeration to say, that to General 
Jackson's warm and active exertions in these years o<^ sickness and 
decrepitude is chiefly to be attributed the annexation of Texas. 

Great was the joy of General Jackson at the election of Mr. Pollc 
in 1844. In a field adjoining the Hermitage he entertained two 
hundred guests at dinner, in honor of the event. His anxiety, how- 
ever, on ihf suT)ject of annexation appeared to increase latlier than 



456 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1845. 

duniiiish after the election. On the first clay of the last year of 
his life, he wrote a long letter to his friend Blair, urging him to 
use all his influence to induce Congress to act with promptitude in 
the matter. 

One of the secret conditions upon which ]Mr. Polk Obtained the 
support of the nuUifiers was, that the Globe should uot be the organ 
of his administration. General Jackson, ignorant of this condition, 
was puzzled, astonished, and indignant, when he perceived the 
movements preliminary to the shelving of his old friend and staunch 
ally. "How loathsome," he wrote to Mr. Blair, April 9th, 1845, 
" it is to me to see an old friend laid aside, principles of justice and 
friendship forgotten, and all for the sake of policy — and the great 
democratic party divided or endangered for polwy. I cannot re- 
flect upon it with any calmness ; every point of it, upon scrutiny, 
turns to harm and disunion, and not one beneficial result can be ex- 
pected from it. I will be anxious to know the result. If harmony 
is restored, and the Qlohe the organ, I will rejoice ; if sold, to whom, 
and for what? Have, if you sell, the purchase money well secured. 
Tliis may be the last letter I may be able to write you ; but live or 
die, I am your friend (and never deserted one from policy), and 
leave my papers and reputation in your keeping." 

General Jackson Avas never enlightened as to the cause of Mr. 
Polk's extraordinary conduct. Mr. Blair, hai)pily for himself, went 
into retirement ; the editor of the Union reigned in his stead ; the 
democi'atic party was nullified. 

The well-known correspondence between Commodore Elliot and 
General Jackson, with regard to the sarcophagus of the Roman em- 
peror, occurred in the spring of the last year of the general's life. 
"Last night," wrote the blunt sailor (March 18th, 1845), "I made 
something of a speech at the National Institute (Washington, U. C), 
and have offered for their acceptance the sarcophagus which I ob- 
tained at Palestine, brought home in the Constitution, and believed 
to contain the remains of the Roman emperor, Alexander -Severus, 
with the suggestion that it might be tendered you for your final 
resting-place. I pray you, general, to live on in the fear of the 
Lord; dying the death of a Roman soldier; an emperors coflin 
awaits you." 

The general replied : " With the warmest sensations that can in 
spire a grateful heart, I must decline accepting the honor intended 



1845.] THE CLOSING SCENES. 457 

to be bestowed. I cjimiot consent that my mortal body shall be 
laid in a repository prepared for an emperor or a king. My repub- 
lican feelings and principles forbid it ; the simplicity of our system 
of government forbids it ; every monument erected to perpetuate 
the memory of our heroes and statesmen ought to bear evidence of 
the economy and simplicity of our republican institutions, and the 
plainness of our republican citizens, who are the sovereigns of our 
glorious Union, and whose virtue is to perpetuate it. Triie virtue 
cannot exist where pomp and parade are the governing j^assions : 
it can only dwell with the people — the great laboring and producing 
classes that form the bone and sinew of our confederacy. I have 
prepared an humble depository for my mortal body beside that 
wherein lies my beloved wife, where, without any pomp or parade, 
I have requested, when my God calls me to sleep with my fathers, 
to be laid." 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

THE CLOSING SCENES. 

During the first six years after his retirement from the presi- 
dency, General Jackson's health was not umch worse than it had 
usually beeu in Washington. Every attack of bleeding at the lungs, 
however, left hiin a little weaker than he had ever been before, and 
his recovery was slower and less complete. During the last two 
years of his life, he could never be said to have rallied from these 
attacks, but remained always very weak, and knew few intervals, 
and those very short, of relief from pain. A cough tormented him, 
day and night. He had all the symptoms of consujnption. One 
lung Avas consumed entirely; and the other was diseased. Six 
months before his death, certain dropsical symptoms, which had 
threatened him for years, were painfully developed ; and from that 
time, he was alternately swollen by dropsy, and, at once, relieved 
and prostrated by diarrhea. At times, to use his own language, he 
was " one blubber" from head to foot ; and when he seemed to be 
threatened with immediate death from this disease, he would be 
20 



468 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. [1845, 

saved by another which reduced him so low that he would recline 
for many hours helpless and feebly gasping for life. The moment 
he recovered a little strength, the dropsy regained its power, and 
again he swelled, only to be relieved and reduced as before. 

The patience which he displayed during tliose years of dissolution 
sometimes approached the sublime. No anguish, however severe, 
hgwever protracted, ever wrung from this most irascible of men a 
fretful or a complaining word. Mr. Blair relates an incident Avit- 
nessed by himself at the Hermitage, when he visited the general 
toward the close of his life, which exhibits the patient tenderness 
of the dying man in a touching light. The general was sitting in 
an arm-chair, suffering from one of those agonizing headaches to 
which he was subject in his last years, and to whicli every man is 
subject who chews tobacco. His temples were throbbing visibly. 
He sat silent and motionless, as was his wont at such times, wholly 
absorbed in mere endurance. A little nephew, a sturdy, boisterpus 
urchin, six years of age, was playing about the room, unconscious 
of the silent sufferer. In one of his rough gambols, he ran his 
head, with tremendous violence, full against the general's body. 
The sick man turned ashy pale, fell back in his chair in breathless 
agony, and remained for a minute or two, speechless. When he re- 
covered his breath, he said, hi a tone of the most exquisite tender- 
ness, as though pitying the child : 

"Oh, my dear boy, you don't know how much pain you have 
given your uncle !" 

Seldom, down to his last hour, was he so far sxibdued by pain 
that he could not converse with animation upon political topics. 
One day, about six weeks before his death, when he was reclining 
in bed, he surprised Dr. Edgar by asking him : 

"Doctor, what do you think will be my fame with posterity? I 
mean, what will posterity blame me for most ?" 

Now, Dr. Edgar had been for many years a political opponent 
of General Jackson, and held opinions respecting some of his acts 
which were decided. Wishing to avoid a political argument Avith 
a dying man, he tried to evade the question. '^I'he general, how- 
ever, pressed it upon him, and seemed anxious for an explicit 
answer. 

"Well," said the clergyman at length, "if I must give an opinion, 
general, T think posterity will blame you most for proscribing people 



1845.] THE CLOSING SCENES. 45ti 

for opinion's sake. In Kentucky, every Adams man was turned 
out of office except one, and he resigned because he said he should 
have to bear the blame of all the rascality dwie in the state." 

The remark which General Jackson made upon these words sur- 
prised Dr. Edgar as much as it will surprise the reader. He said 
that during all his presidency he had turned but one subordinate 
out of office by an act of direct, personal authority, and he was a 
post-master. Dr. Edgar expressed his astonishment at this state- 
ment, when the general repeatetl it with emphasis and particularity. 

Changing the subject, Dr. Edgar asked him what he would have 
done with Calhoun and the other nuUifiers, if they had kept on. 

" Hung them, sir, as high as Haman," was the instantaneous re- 
ply. " They should have been a terror to traitors to all time, and 
posterity would have jJi'onounced it the best act of my life." 

As he said these words, he half rose in bed, and all the old fire 
glowed in his old eyes again. 

Almost to the last he was pestered by office-seekers, who desired 
liis signature to their petitions, and by hero-Avorshipers, who wished 
to see his face before it was hidden forever from mortal view. A 
gentleman who visited the Hermitage in one of the last weeks of 
the general's life, describes his interview with the "dying hero:" 
" It was about noon when I arrived. Throngs of people were in 
attendance, waiting to see the general. He would receive only two 
or three at once, so I sent my card, and after about an hour was 
ushered, in company with a stranger, into the presence of the hero 
of jSTew Orleans. The feeble old man was lying upon a sofa, his 
head and shoulders elevated upon the bolstfer. He was clad in an 
old style, snuft-colored coat, with a high stilf collar, and a coverlet 
was thrown over liini from his feet to his bosom. His only attend- 
ant was a negro boy, who stood near, fanning away the flies with 
a bush. The hero is now extremely emaciated. His chest is meager 
and collapsed ; his cheeks hollow and ghastly ; his once falcon eye 
sunken and rayless ; and his whole countenance, when under no ex- 
citement, languid and insignificant. The gentleman who had en- 
tered with me brought a letter from General Armstrong, commend- 
ing liim to President Polk for some office, and he had come here to 
get the signature of Andrew Jackson, before he should carry it to 
Washington. The way he was jilted was truly hickory. The old 
general repulsed him with a stern— 



460 hiFJ<: OF A :vj D R li w j a c k s o js . [1845. 

" 'No, no, uo ! I can do no such thing; tliey'h .say I'm dictating- 
to tlic president.' 

" And then he fell to lecturing on the way he was annoyed by the 
office-seekers. 

" ' I am dying,' said he, ' as fast as I can, and they all know it, 
but they Avill keep swarming upon me in crowds, seeking for office 
— intriguing for office.' 

" The gentleman, after assuring General Jackson that General 
Armstrong directed him to call and obtain his autograph to this 
paper, concluded to put the document in his pocket and say no more 
about it. We remained in the general's private room about twenty 
minutes, and had to give place to others 'who were waiting." 

On Sunday, May 24th, the last Sunday but two of his life. General 
Jackson partook of the communion m tlie presence of his family. 
He spoke much of the consolations of religion, and declared that he 
was ready for the final summons. " Death," said he, after the cere- 
mony was over, " has no terrors for me. When I have suffered 
sufficiently, the Lord Avill take me to himself; but what are my 
sufferings compared with those of the blessed Saviour who died ou 
the accursed tree for me ? Mine are notmng." 

On the Friday before he died, in an interval of comparative relief, 
he gave many directions respecting the affairs of his farm ; and 
conversed much upon Texas and Oregon. He, also, exjaressed to 
his daughter his desire to be buried without pomp or display of any 
kind. 

" I am pretty comfortable^" said he, "but I feel that I shall not 
long be with you. ^Vhen I am about to depart hence, send for my 
old friends, Major Lewis and Judge Campbell (but I fear Judge 
Campbell is too feeble to come) to make arrangements with my 
son for my funeral. I whh to be buried in a plain, unostentatious 
miumer." 

Speaking of Texas, he said ; " All is safe at last." He pi-aised 
warmly the conduct of his " old friend and companion-in-arms," 
General Samuel Houston, declaring that to him the LTnited States 
owed the "i-ecovery" of Texas. Reverting to Oregon, he said he 
knew President Polk would firmly maintain the rights of the coun- 
try, but hoped that this could be done vrithout resorting to war. 

" If not," said he, " let war come. There will be patriots enough 
in the land to repel foreign aggression, come whence it iiiay, and to 



1845.] T H :^ CLOSIXG SCENES. 46] 

roaiiituain saevedly our just rights and to perpetuate our glorious 
constitution and liberty, anji to preserve our happy Union." 

All day long his mind seemed full of this subject. He dictated a 
letter to the president, expressing confidence in his judgment and 
patriotism, and urging him to act promptly arid resolutely in the 
aifairs of Texas and Oregon. This was his last letter. The next 
evening, twenty-two hours before his death, he franked a letter to 
^fr. Thomas F. Marshall, of Kentucky, who had written to inquire 
respecting his health. He never signed his name again. 

He s iw the light of another Sunday morning — June the eighth — 
a still, brilliant, hot day. He had been w^orse the day before, and 
Dr. Esselman had remained all night at the Hermitage. " On Sun- 
day morning," writes Dr. Esselman, "on entering his room, I found 
him sitting in his arm-chair, with his two faithful servants, George 
and Dick, by his side, who had just removed him from his bed. I 
immediately perceived that the hand of death was upon him. I 
informed his son that he could survive but a few hours, and he im- 
mediately dispatched a servant for Major William B. Lewis, the 
general's devoted friend. Mr. Jackson informed nie that it was 
the general's request that, in case he grew v/orse, or was thought 
to be near his death. Major Lewis should be sent for, as he wished 
him to be near him in his last moments. He was instantly removed 
to his bed, but before he could be placed there he had swooned 
away. His family and servants, believing him to be dead, were 
veiy nnich alai'med, and manifested the most intense grief; how- 
over, in a few seconds reaction took place, and he became conscious, 
and raised his eyes, and said: 'My dear children, do not grieve for 
me; it is true 1 am going to leave you; I am well aware of my 
situation ; I have suliered much bodily pain, but my suflerings are 
l)ut as nothing compared with that which our blesseti Saviour en- 
dured upon that accursed cross, that we might all be saved who 
put their trust in him.' He first addressed Mrs. Jackson (his 
daughter-in-law), and took leave of her, reminding her of her tender 
kindness manifested toward him at all times, and especially during 
his pi'otracted illness. He next took leave of Mrs. Adams (a wid- 
ov\n-d sister of Mrs. Jackson, who had been a member of the gen- 
eral's family for several years), in the most kind and affectionate 
manner, reminding her also of her tender devotion toward him 
during his illness. He next took leave of his adopted son in the 



462 LIFE OF- AXDREW JACK SOX. [1845. 

most affectionate and devoted manner. He next took leave of his 
o^randchildren and the children of Mrs. Adams. He kissed and 
blessed them in a manner so touchingly impressive that I have no 
language that can do this scene justice. He discovered that there 
M'oretwo of the boys absent — one of his grandsons and one of Mrs. 
Adams's. He inquired for them. He was informed that they were 
at the chapel, attending Sunday-school. He desired that they should 
be sent for. As soon as they came, he kissed and blessed them also, 
as he had done to those witli him. By this time, most of his serv- 
ants had collected in his room, or at the windows. When he had 
taken leave of them all, he delivered one of tl>e most impressive 
lectures on the subject of religion that I have ever heard. He 
spoke for nearly half an hour, and ajiparently with the power of 
inspiration ; for he ffpoke with calmness, with strength, and, indeed, 
Avith animation. I regret exceedingly that there was no one present 
who could have noted down his precise words. In conclusion, he 
said : ' My dear children, and friends, and servants, I hope and trust 
to meet you all in heaven, both white and black.' The l^ist sentence 
he repeated — ' both white and black.' looking at them with the ten- 
derest solicitude. With these words he ceased to speak, but fixed 
his eyes on his granddaughter, Rachel Jackson (who bears the name 
of his own beloved wife), for several seconds. What was passing 
through his mind at that moment, I will not pretend to say ;■ but it 
did appear to me that he was invoking the blessings of heaven to 
rest upon her." 

Major Lewis r^iTived about noon. "Major," said the dying man, 
in a feeble voice, but quite audibly, " I am glad to see you. You 
had like to have been too late." ' 

During most of the afternoon he lay tranquil and without pain, 
speaking occasionally to Major Lewis, who never left his bedside. 
He sent farewell messages to Colonel Benton, Mr. Blair, General 
Houston, and to other friends not known to the public. At half- 
past five, after a long interval of silence, his son took his hand, and 
whispered in his ear : 

" Father, how do you feel ? Do you know me ?" 

"Know you?" he replied, "yes, I knoAV you. I would know 
you all if I could see. Bring me my spectacles." 

When his spectacles were put on, he said : 

" Where is my daughter and Marian ? God will take care of you 



184.T.] THE CLOSING SCEKES. 463 

for nie. I am my God's. I belong to him. I go but a shoit time 
before you, and I want to meet you all, white and black, in heaven." 

All present burst inta tears. The crowd of servants on the pinzzn, 
who were all day looking in through the windows, sobbed, cried 
out, and wrung their hands. The general spoke again : 

" What is the matter with my dear children ? Have I alarmed 
you ? Oh, do not cry. Be good children, and we will all meet in 
heaven." 

These were his last words. He lay for half an hour with closed 
eyes, breathing softly and easily. Major Lewis stood close to his 
head. Tiie family were about the bed silently waiting and weeping. 
George and the faithful Hannah were present. Hamuih could not 
be induced to leave the room. " I was born and raised on the 
j)lace," said she, "and my place is here." At six o'clock the gen- 
eral's head suddenly fell forward and was caught by Major Lewis. 
The major applied his ear to the mouth of his friend, and found 
that he had ceased to breathe. He had died without a struggle or 
a pang. Major Lewis removed the pillows, drew down the body 
upon the bed, and closed the eyes. Upon looking again at the face, 
he observed that the expression of imin which it had worn so long 
had passed away. Death had restored it to naturalness and serenity. 
The aged M^arrior slept. 

Two days after, he was laid in the grave by the side of his wite, 
of whom he had said, not long before he died : " Heaven Avill be 
no heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there." All Nashville 
and the country round about seemed to be present at the funeral. 
Three thousand j)ersons were thought to be assembled on the lawn 
in front of the house, when Dr. Edgar stepped out upon the por- 
tico to begin the services. After prayer had been ottered, a favor- 
ite psalm of the departed was sung : 

"Why should we start and fear to die? 
What timorous worms we mortals are!" 

The text of the sermon was : '' These are they which came out 
of great tribulation, and washed their robes white in the blood of 
the Lamb." The preacher related, with im^jressive effect, the his- 
tory of the late religious life of the deceased, and pronounced upon 
his character an eloquent, but a discriminating eulogium. Another 
hymn which the general had loved concluded the ceremonies. The 



464 LIFE OF ANDREW JACK SOX. [1845. 

body w;is then borne to the garden and placed in the tomb long 
ago prepared for its reception. " I never witnessed a funeral of 
lialf the solemnity," wrote a spectator at the time. The tablet 
which covers the remains bears this inscription : 

GENERAL 

ANDKEW JACKSON, 
Born on the 15th of March, 1767, 

Died on the 8th of June, 1845. 

When thQ news of the death of General Jackson reached Vv^ash- 
ington, the president of the United States ordered the departments 
to be closed for one day, and Mr. Bancroft, the Secretary of the 
Navy and Acting Secretary of War, directed public honors to be 
paid to the memory of the ex-president, at all the military and naval 
stations. In every large town in the country thei-e were public 
ceremonies in honor of the deceased, consisting usually of an oration 
and a procession. • In the city of New York the entire body of the 
uniformed militia, all the civic functionaries, the trades and socie- 
ties, joined in the parade. The record of the solemnities pei'formed 
in the city of New York, in honor of Andrew Jackson, forms an 
octavo volume of three hundred and tliree pages. Twenty-five of 
the orations delivered on this occasion, in various towns and cities, 
were published in a volume entitled " Monument to the Memory of 
General Andrew Jackson." 



CHAPTER XLV 

CONCLUSION. 



Thus lived and died Andrew Jackson, the idol of his party, often 
the pride and favorite of his country. His best friends could not 
deny that he had deplorable faults ; nor his worst enemies that he 
possessed rare and dazzling merits. He rendered his country signal 
and glorious services, and brought upon the government of that 



CONCLUSION. 465 

country an evil which it will be extremely difficult to remedy. No 
man will ever he able quite to compreiiend Andrew Jackson who 
has not personally known a Scotch Irishman. More than he was 
any thing else, he was a North-of-Irelander. A tenacious, pugna- 
cious race ; honest, yet capable of dissimulation ; often angry, but 
most prudent when most fui-ious ; endowed by nature with the 
gift of extracting from every affiiir and every relation all the strife 
it can be made to yield; at home and among .dependents, all ten- 
derness and generosity : to opponents, violent, ungenerous, prone 
to believe the very worst of them ; a race that means to tell the 
truth, but, when excited by anger or warped by prejudice, incapa- 
ble of either telling, or remembering, or knowing the truth ; not 
taking kindly to culture, but able to achieve wonderful things with- 
out it ; a strange blending of the best and the worst qualities of 
two races. Jackson had these traits in an exaggerated degree ; as 
Ii'ish as though he wei'e not Scotch ; as Scotch as though he were 
not Irish. 

The circumstances of his childhood nourished his peculiarities. 
He was a poor boy in a new countiy, without a father to teach him 
moderation, obedience, and self-control. The border warfai-e of 
the Revolution whirled him hither and thither ; made him fierce 
and exacting ; taught him self-reliance ; accustomed him to regard 
an opponent as a foe. They who are not for us are against us, and 
they who are against us are to be put to death, was the Carolina 
doctrine during the later years of the war. The early loss of his 
elder brother, his own hard lot in the Camden prison, the terrible 
and needless sufferings of his younger brother, the sad but heroic 
death of his mother, were events not calculated to give the softer 
traits the mastery within him. All the influences of his early years 
tended to develop a very positive cast of character, to make him 
self-helpful, decisive, indiiferent to danger, impatient of contradic- 
tion, and disposed to follow up a quarrel to the death. 

Jackson had passed his forty-fifth year without having achieved 
any thing very remarkable. Public life he had tried, but had not 
shone in it, and nothing became him in his public life so much a^ 
his leaving it. The massacre at Fort Minis gave him, at length, a 
piece of work which he was better fitted to do than any other man 
in the world. Only such energy, such swiftness, such resolution, 
such tenacity of purpose, such disregard of forms any precedents, 
20* 



466 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON. 

such audacity, and such prudence as his, could have defended the 
Southwest in 1814 and 18^5. When a man successfully defends 
his invaded country, we must not too closely scrutinize the acts 
which dim the luster of his great achievement. The captain who 
saves his imperiled ship we honor, though, in the critical hour, he 
may have sworn like a trooper, and knocked down a man or two 
with the speaking trumpet. The slaying of the six militia-men, and 
the maintaining of m,artial law in New Orleans two months too long, 
we may condemn, and, I think, should condemn ; yet most of the 
citizens of the United States will concur in the wish, that when next 
a European army lands upon American soil, there may be a Jack- 
son to meet them at the landing-place. After making all proper 
deductions, justice still requires that we should accord to General 
Jackson's defense of the southern country the very highest praise. 
It was a piece of difficult work most gloriously jdone. ^ Not even 
the party celebrations of the Eighth of January ought to hide from 
us or obscure the genuine merit of those who, in the darkest hour 
this republic had ever known, enabled it to believe agam in its in- 
vincibility, by closing a war of disaster in a blaze of triumph. 
/ He came home from the wars the pride, the darling of the na- 
* tion. No man in this country has ever been subjected to such a 
ton-ent of applause, and few men have been less prepared to with- 
stand it by education, reflection, and experience. He accepted the 
verdict which the nation pronounced upon his cond]ict. He went 
to Florida in 1818, burdened and stimulated Avith a stupendous 
military reputation. The country expected great things of the vic- 
tor of New Orleans, and the victor of New Orleans was not a man 
to disappoint his country. He swept down into the province like a 
tornado, and drove the poor remnant of the Seminoles into the 
Everglades. He assumed, he exercised all the prerogatives of an 
absolute sovereign. He raised troops in his own way ; invaded a 
foreign territory ; made war upon his brother sovereign, the king 
of Spain ; put his subjects to death without trial; shot Ambrister, 
and permitted the murder of Arbuthnot. He came home, not in 
chains, to stand his trial for such extraordinary proceedings, but in 
triumph, to receive the approval of the president, defense and 
eulogy from John Quincy Adams, exoneration from Congress, and 
the applause of the people. What an eftect such an experience as 
this was likely to have upon such a mind as his, we need not say. 



CONCLUSION. 46Y 

He was started for the presidency. He was passive ; he was 
clay in the hands of two or three friendly potters. Tennessee took 
up his name with enthusiasm ; Pennsylvania brought it prominently 
before the nation ; he won a plurality of electoral votes, but Avas 
not elected. His disappointment was keen, and his wrath burned 
anew and with increased fury against the man Avho had given the 
office to Mr. Adams. If he did not invent the bargai«-and-cor- 
ruption lie, he did worse, he believed it. To be willing to believe 
so scandalous a tale respecting such men, except upon what may 
strictly be called evidence, is not creditable to the heart or the un- 
derstanding of any man. To persist in believing it for fifteen years, 
after it had been completely disproved, to avow a belief in it, for 
political purposes, just as he was sinking into the grave, revealed a 
phase of character which we have a right to call detestable. 

If General Jackson was passive during the campaign of 1824, he 
was passive no longer. The exposure of the circumstances attending 
his marriage, accompanied bj unjust comments and gross exagger- 
ations, the reflections upon his mother, the revival of every incident 
of his life that could be unfavorably construed, kept him in a blaze 
of wrath. Determined to triumph, he took an active part, at home 
and abroad, in the canvass. He was elected ; but in the moment of 
his triumph, his wife, than whom no wife was ever more tenderly 
beloved, was lost to him forever. The calamity that robbed hfe of all 
its charm deepened, and, as it were, sanctified his political resent- 
ments ! His enemies had slain her, he thought. Adams had per- 
mitted, if he had not prompted, the circulation of the calumnies 
that destroyed her. Clay, he firmly believed, had originated the 
crusade against her ; for this strange being could believe any evil 
thing of one whom he cordiallv hated. Broken in spirit, broken in 
health, the old man, cherishing what he deemed a holy wrath, but 
meaning to serve his country well, went to Washington, to find it 
crowded with hungry claimants for reward. 

Oh, what an opportunity was his ! How different were the con- 
dition of public affairs in this year 1863, how different the prospect 
before us, if, instead of that vague and ominous paragraph about 
" reform," in his inaugural address, he had used language like this : 

'' Know, all whom it may concern, that in this republic no man 
should seek, few men should decline, a public trust. To apply for 
office, fellow-citizens, is of itself an evidence of unfitness for office. 



468 LIFE OF ANDREW JACKSON, 

I will appoint no man to an office who seeks one, or foi" whom one 
is songht. When I want a man, I shall know how to find him. If 
any one has indnlged tlie expectation that I will deprive honest and 
capable men of their places because they thought proper to oppose 
my election to the presidency, and, in the heat of an exciting can- 
vass, went beyond the limits of a fair and proper opposition, I notify 
them, now and here, that AndreM^ Jackson, imperfect and faulty as 
he is, is not capable of conduct so despicable. Depart hence, ye 
office-seeking crew, Avhose very presence here sho\\'S that your mo- 
tives for supporting me were base !" 

General Jackson's appointment-and-removal i)olicy I consider an 
evil so greai, and so difficult to remedy, that if all his other public acts 
had been perfectly wise and right, this single feature of his admin- 
istration would suffice to render it deplorable rather than admirable. 

I am strong in the conviction that it was the spoils system which 
gradually rendered possible the civil convulsions of 1860 and 1861. 
The schemes of the secession conspirators, I think, Avould have been 
baffled without bloodshed, if Andrew Jackson had left the govern- 
ment as strong and incorrupt as he found it. . Indeed, I must avow 
explicitly the belief, that, notwithstanding the good done by 
General Jackson during his presidency, his elevation to power 
was an error on the part of the people of the United States. 
The good which he effected has not continued ; while the evil 
which he began remains, has grown more formidable, has. now 
attained such dimensions that the prevailing feeling of the country, 
with regard to the corruptions and inefficiency of the government, 
is despair. 

I find in General Jackson's private writings no evidence that he 
had ever studied the art of governing nations, or had arrived at any 
clear conclusions on the subject. Except the "Vicar of Wake- 
field," it is doubtful if he had ever read any secular book through. 
That solitary exce]:»tion is creditable to his taste and feelings as a 
liuman being, for no n_ian can be altogether despicable who keenly 
relishes the "Vicar of Wakefield." But a president of the United 
States should know all books, all times, all nations, nil arts, all arti- 
fices, all men. It is essential that he be a man of culture. His cul- 
ture may not prevent his falUng into error, but a cultivated man is 
<',apable of being convinced of his errors. He cannot he a cultivated 
man without having learned, over and over again, how fallible his 



CONCLUSION. 400 

judgment u ; without having often been sure that he was right an(Z 
then found that he was wrong. 

In the eternal necessity of courage, and in man's instinctive per- 
ception of its necessity, is to be found, perhaps, the explanation of 
the puzzling fact, that in an age which has produced so many glo- 
rious benefactors of their species, such men as Wellington and Jack- 
son are loved by a greater number of people, than any others. The 
spiritualized reader is not expected to coincide in the strict justice 
of this arrangement. Kis heroes are of another cast* But the 
rudest man and the scholar may agree in this, that it is the valor of 
their heroes which renders them eftective and admirable. The in- 
tellect, for example, of a discoverer of truth excites our wonder ; 
but what rouses our enthusiasm is the calm and modest courage 
with which he defies the powerful animosity of those' who thrive by 
debauching the understanding of man. 

It was curious that England and America should both, and nearly 
at the same time, have elevated their favorite generals to the high- 
est civil station. Wellington became prime minister in 1827; Jack- 
son, president in 1829. Wellington was tried three years, and found 
Avanting, and driven from powei*, execrated by the people. His car- 
riage, his house, and his statue, "were pelted by the mob. Jackson 
reigned eight years, and retired with his popularity undiminished. 
The reason was, that Wellington was not in accord with his gen- 
eration, and was surrounded ])y men who were, if possible, less so ; 
while Jackson, besides being in sympathy with the people, had the 
great good fortune to be influenced by men who had learned the 
rudiments of statesmanship in the school of Jefferson. 

Yes, autocrat as he was, Andrew Jackson loved the people, the 
common i:)eople, the sons and daughters of toil, as truly as they 
loved him, and believed in them as they believed in him. 

He was in accord with his generation. >/He had a clear percep- 
tion that the toiling millions are not a class in the community, but 
are the community. He felt that government should exist only for 
the benefit of the governed ; that the strong ai-e strong only that 
they may aid the weak ; that the rich are rightfully rich only that 
they may so combine and direct the labors of the poor as to make 
labor more profitable to the laborer. He did not comprehend these 
truths as they are demonstrated by Jefferson and Herbert Spencer, 
but he had an intuitive and instinctive perception of them. And in 



) 



470 LIFE OF ANDREW JAOKSON. 

his most .autocratic moments, he really thought that he was fighting 
the battle of the people, and doing their will while baffling the pur- 
poses of their representatives. If he had been a man of knowledge 
as well as force, he would have taken the part of the people more 
eifectually, and left to his successors an increased power of doing 
good, instead of better facilities for doing harm. He appears al- 
ways to have meant well. But his ignorance of law, history, poli- 
tics, science, of every thing which he who governs a country oughl, 
to know, ivas extreme. Mr, Trist remembers hearing a member of 
the general's family say, that General Jackson did not believe the 
world was round. His ignorance was as a wall round about 
him — high, impenetrable. He was imprisoned in his ignorance, 
and sometimes raged round his little, dim inclosure like a tiger in 
his den. 

The domestic life of this singular man was blameless. He was a 
chaste man at every period of his life. His letters, of which many 
hundreds still exist, contain not a sentence, not a phrase, not a 
word, that a girl may not properly read. A husband more con- 
siderately and laboriously kind, never lived. As a father, he was 
only too indulgent : his generosity to his adopted children was in- 
exhaustible. To his slaves, he was master, father, physician, coun- 
selor, all in one ; and though his overseers complained that he was 
too lenient, yet his steady prosperity for so many years, and the 
uniform abundance of his crops, seems to prove that his servants 
were not negligent of their master's interest. He had a virtuous 
abhorrence of debt, and his word was as good as his bond. In all 
his private transactions, from youth to hoaiy age, he was punctil- 
iously honest. 

Upon the whole, we must say of Andrew Jackson, that though 
he was not a model to copy, yet his faults were of such a nature as 
men are willing to forgive. There are two virtues, which possess- 
ing, a man has a right to a place in the ranks of the virtuous : one 
of these is honesty, the other chastity — virtues from which come all 
the happiness and all the good of life ; and without a certain prev- 
alence of which, society relapses into filthy barbarism. , But ui ad- 
dition to these, our fiery Jackson possessed courage, and an un- 
aifected interest in the welfare of the peojile of his country. Griev- 
ous were his faults ; I would have his countrymen understand them, 
hate them, ,shun them, forgive them. 



CONCI. USIOX. 471 

Most of our history for the last eighty years will not be 
remembered for many centuries ; but perhaps amono- the few 
things that Oblivion will spare, may be some outline of the story 
of Andrew Jackson — the poor Irish emigrant's orphan son ; Avho 
defended his country at New Orleans, and being elected president 
therefor, kept that country in an uproar for eight years ; and, after 
being more hated and move loved than any man of his day, died 
peacefully at his home in Tennessee, and was borne to his grave 
followed by the benedictions of a large majority of his fellow- 
citizens. 



IN D E X. 



Adair, General. In defense of New Orleans, 
204, 249, 254, 259, 266. 

Adams, John. His inaugiiration, 66. 

Adams. John Quincy. Allusion to, 3S. Remark 
upon Jackson, 323. Candid.ite for the pres- 
idencv, 33i). Election, 326. Meets Jackson 
at White House, 326. Beaten in 1328, 341. 
Only removed two office-holders, 355. Allu- 
sion to, 0S3. 

Adams, Mrs., 461. 

AUoorn, Colonel, 140. 

Alli-ators, 2T4. 

Allison. David. His transactions with Jackson, 
76. His failure, 77. 

Ambrister, Robert C, 309, 310, 311, 313. 

Anderson, Patten, 99, 105. 

Anderson, W. P. Concerned in race, 84. Wel- 
comes Burr, 99. 

Anecdotes. Gold growing at Charlotte, 16. 
Andy kicked over by a gun, 17. Debate be- 
tween Andy and his uncle, 17. Eide on 
the grass pony, 21. Young Jackson and his 
grass " blade, 23. The revengeful whig, 23. 
Hanging tories in the revolution, 24. Cai-- 
olina boys playing battle, 25. The j'oung 
Jacksons on guard, 26. Jackson refuses to 
clean otlicer's boots, 23. Jackson wins at 
dice, 36. Race with Hugh Montgomery, 41. 
Drunken riot at Salisbury, 41. The owl 
Etory, 46. A rainy night in the woods, 
54. Saves party of lawyers, ,55. A bully 
suppressed, 59. The Styx, 60. Duel with 
Aver}', 60. Jackson at the fire, 61. Judge 
Jackson at Captain Lyon's, 74. The click of 
the tobacco-box, 105. Jackson dining at Mrs. 
Livingston's, 199. ■ Jackson and Admiral 
Cochrane, 229. The little bugler on the Sth 
of January, 264. General Humbert and the 
British dummy, 275. Jackson and Adams 
meeting at White House, 337. Benton and 
Gabriel Moore, 3S9. Calhoun and Van Buren, 
390. The president and the deputation, 429. 
Benton and Van Buren, 44G. Jackson nomin- 
ates ruling elders, 4£2. Jackson and his little 
nephew, 4.5S. 

Annexation of Te.xas. 455. 

Arbuthnot, Alexander, 292, 306, 809, 310, 813. 

Arbuthnot, John James, 313. 

Armstrong, J. Orders Jackson's army dis- 
banded, 111. 

Armstrong. Lieutenant, 164, 381, 4C0. 

Arrests at New Orleans, 285. 

Aukland, Lord, 390. 

A very, Isaac T. Quoted, 33, 60. 



Avery, Colonel Waightstill. Jackson applies 
to, 33. His duel with Jackson, 60. 



Bacue, Benjamin Franklin, 63. 

Bailey, Captain. Commands at Fort.Mims, 127. 

Bancroft, Georse, 360. 464. 

Bank of the United States. Allusion to, 64. ^ 
Described, 359. Allusion to, 3S2. Recharter 
vetoed. 391. Deposits removed from, 425. 

Ban-ancas, Fort, 315. 

Barry, William T., 350. 

Barton, Thomas P., 435, 439. 

Barton, William. Jackson's mother dies at his 
house, 33. 

Bayard, James A., 388. 

Beale, Ca))tain,213, 263. 

Beasloy, Major Daniel. In command at Fort 
Mims, 124. Death, 126. 

Bennett, James Gordon, 362. 

Benton, Jesse. His duel with Carroll, 113. 
Affray with Jackson, 120. 

Benton', Thomas H. Allusion to, 33. Com- 
mands a regiment under Jackson, 109. Saves 
Jackson from ruin, 115. His affray with 
Jackson, 120. On removals, 356. Quoted, 369, 
839, 428, 442, 444, 446. 

Berrien. John McPherson, 350, 372. 

Biddle, Nicholas. Allusion to, 38. President 
of Bank of U. S.. 300, 392, 395, 420, 425, 430. 

Big Warrior, 174, 175. 

Blackburn, Rev. Gideon, 156, 294. 

Blair, Francis P. Allusion to, 33. Jackson tells 
him a storv, 59. Invited to Washington, 882. 

- Sets up the Globe, 883, 384. Against Bank of 
the U. S., 423. Lends money to' Jackson, 450. 
Jackson to, 456. Visits Hermitage, 453. 

Blount, Governor, 166, 194, 281. 

Blount, William, 63. 

Blanche, Lieutenant, 236. 

Blue, Major, 195, 197. 

Boleck or Bowlegs, 307, 308. 

Borgue, Lake, 202. 

Boyd. Knocked down by Jackson, 61. 

Brackenridse, Judge Henry M.. 313 to 829. 

Bradford, Mr., 93, lf54. 

Branch, John. 350, 377. 885. 

Br.anch, Mrs. John, 372. 

Brooke, Colonel, 321. 

Brooke. Francis, 835, 338. 

Brooke, Mrs., 321. 

Bronangh, Dr., 75. 

Brown, General Jacob, 298. 

Buchanan, James, 38. 



474 



I X D E X 



Burr, Aaron. Allusion to, .88. Promotos admis- 
sion of Tennessee to the Union, (i3. His vote 
for president iu 1797, 60. His visits to Jack- 
son, 96. Explosion of his plans, 1U2. Recom- 
mends Jackson for a commission, 106. Allu- 
sion to, 3S7. 

Butler, Benjamin F., .314, 431. 

Butler, Captain, 213, 216, 287. 
« Butler, Colonel, 183, 243, 209, 820. 



Caldwell, Colonel, 250. 

Calhoun, John C. Allusion to, 38. Orders Jack- 
son to Florida, 299. Candidate for the presi- 
dency, 331. Elected vice-president, 843. Ku- 
moval ])oliey. 35.5. His toast at Jefferson ban- 
quet, 870. Jackson denounces, 876. Jackson 
quarrels with, 378, 384. Against Van Buren, 
391. A protectionist, 399. Promotes nullifi- 
cation, 400. Denounces Jackson, 427. Pro- 
poses state deposits, 444. Jackson sorry he 
• had hot hanged liim,4.59. 

Calhoun, Mrs. John C, 372. 

Callava, Governor, 317 to 329. 

Camden, S. C. Jackson confined there, 29. 

Campbell, Judge, 400. 

Campbell, Rev^ J. N., 852. 354. 

Carelina, The, 203, 215, 217, 218, 228, 231, 23.3. 

Carolinas, The. During the revolutionary war, 

Carriekfergus, 9. 

Carroll, General William. Accompanies Jackson 
to Natchez, 109. His duel with Benton, 116. 
In service against the Creeks, 153, 158, 161, 104. 
In defense of New Orleans, 203, 204, 210, 213, 
224, 255, 259, 206. 

Carroll, Mr., 229. 

Cartwright, Rev. Peter, 204. 

Cass, Lewis, 38, 3S7, 419, 440. 

Catawba river, 10. 

Catlett, Dr. Dickinson's second, 32. 

Catron, Judge, 381. 

Champion, James, 804. 

Ch.arles X., 69. 

Charlotte, N. C. Jackson at school there, 15. 
Gold found there, 16. 

Charlville, M. Pioneer at Nashville, 48. 

Chotard, Captain, 214. 

Claiborne, W. ( :. C. Appointed governor of New 
Orleans, 74. Sends troops to Fort Minis, 124, 
In defense of New Orleans, 198. 212. 

Clay, Henry. Allusion to, 38, 229. Candidate 
for the presidency, 331. Gives presidency to 
Adams, 330. Accepts secretary of state, 338. 
Directs bank policy, 397. Defeated for the 
presidency, 390. Returns to the senate, 400. 
His compromise bill, 414. Moves to censure 
Jackson, 427. Visits Nashville, 448. Offends 
Jackson, 449. 

Clinton, De Witt, 331. 

Clinton, James, 66. 

Clover Bottom. Described, 84, 105. 

Cocke, General. In service against the Creeks, 
137, 138, 143, 144, 152, 156, li58. 

Cocke, Judge, 164. 

Cocke. William, 63. 

Cock-Fighting. Jackson practices it, 36, 82. 

Cochrane, .\dininil. 216, 240, 2S3. 

Codrington, Admiral, 210. 

Coffee, John. In business with Jackson, 7B. 
Marries Polly Donelson, 81. Jackson's gen- 
erosity to, 81. His duel with McNairy, 85. 
Builds boats for Burr, 99. Leads cavalry to 



Natchez, 109, 110. In Benton affray, 120. In 
service ag-.unst the Ci-eeks, 152, 13;, 1: 5. 
136, 189, 151. 156, 161, 164, 165. Marches to 
Mobile, 183, 192. In defense of Nchv Orleaii -, 
197, 203, 210, 218, 216; 217, 221. 224, 2.55, 260. 
At I'uneial of Mrs. Jackson, 846. Writes io 
Judge Wliite, -387. 

Compromise Bill, 414. 

Cook, Peter B., 300. 

Cooke, Cajitain J. N. Quoted, 221, 274. 

Cornwallis. Lord. Defeats Gates, 21. Allusion 
to, 25. 

Cotton bales. Useless for defense, 227. 

Courier and Enquirer, 862, 365, 387, 401. 

Craighvad, Rev. ilr., 182. 

C^rawtoi-d, James. Emigrates, 9. Settles, 10. 

Crawford, .Joseph. Emigrates, 9. Settles, 10. 

Crawford, Mr. Studies law with Jackson, 39. 

Crawford, Rev. A. J., 416. 

Crawford, Robert. Emigrates, 9. Settles, 10. 

Crawford, Thomas. 'Wounded at Waxhaw, 27, 
His house plundered, 28. A prisoner, 29. 
Jackson lives in his house, 34. 

Crawford, William H. Allusion to, .58. Candi- 
date for presidency, 830, 342. Betrays (.a.- 
houn, 378. 

Crawley, Lieutenant, 283, 236. 

Creagh. M.ajor, 261. 

C!rockett, T)avid, 136. 

Cumberland College, 290. 

Cummiug, Captain, 804. 

Cureton, T. J. Owns plantation in Waxhaws, 18. 



Daoquin, Captain, 217, 265. 

Dale, Colonel, 257, 201. 

Dallas, George M., 392. 

Davezac, C.iptain, 213, 286. 

Davidson .icademv. 58. 

Davie, W'illiam liirliardson. Raised a regiment, 
IS. At battle of Hanging Rock, 20. Admired 
by Jackson, 20. 

Davis, Colonel, 251. 

Deaderick, Captain, 103. 

De la Croix, Dussau. 211. 

De la Ronde, Colonel, 212. 216. 

Dei)Osits. Removal of, 420. 

Dick, John, 2S8. 

Dickinson, Charles. His duel with Jackson, 88. 

Dickerson, Mahlon, 4:31, 442. 

Dismountins tinder fli-e. Unsafe, 20. 

Do.ak, Itev. Mr., 61. 

Donelson, Andrew Jackson. Educated bv Jack- 
son, 104. Private seeretar}', 36-3, 371, 372,418, 
41?, In retirement, 448. 

Donelson, Colonel John. His voyase to Nash- 
ville, 49. Death, 52. 

Donelson, Mrs. A. J., 844. 

Donelson, Mrs. John. Boards Jackson, 58. 

Donelson, Rachel. Described, 49. Married to 
Robards, 52. 

Donelson, Savern. Jackson adopts his son, 104. 

Donelson, Stockley, 71. 

Doyle, Edmund, 810. 

Duane, William. Jacks<]n admires, 68. 

Duane, William J„ 417, 424. 

Dubourg, Abbe, 277, 

Duels. Jackson and Avery, 60. Jackson aiid 
Dickinson, 83. McNairy and Coffee, 85. Ben- 
ton and Carroll, 118. 

Dunn, George. Early friend of Jackson, 40. 
Duplessis, Captain, 218. 
Dyer, Colonel, 189 



INDEX 



475 



Eabl, Mr.,41!). 

Eastin, Mr. ICditor of " Impartial Keview," 93. 

Eaton, Major John. Allusion to, 3S. Quoted, 
175, '219," '2'2U, 2SS. Appointed secretary of 
^var, 350. Marries Miss O'Niel, 351. Cabal 
agjtinst, 351 to 354. Kemoves Kandolph, 357. 
Allusion to, 374. Cabal against, 377. 

Eaton. Mrs. Cabal asjainst, 351 to 354, 372 to 
374. 

Edgar, Rev. Dr., 450, 458, 459, 463. 

Eighth of January. Buttle of, 253. 

Elliot, Coinniodore, 450. 

EUnaker, William, 397. 

Ely, Eev. E. S., 352. 353. 

Enotaehoiico. Battle of, 159. 

Erwin, .losepli. Concerned in Trn.xton vs. 
Plowboy match, 84, So, 92. 

Esselman, Dr., 4lil. 

Eustls, Mr., Ul. 

Evans, Lieutenant De Lacy, 224. 

Execution of six militia-men, 279. 



Fanning, Major A. C. W., 313. 
Faulkner, Mrs. Thomas, 33. 
Ferrill, Captain, 100,161. 
Fine. General Jackson's, 289. 
Florida. Cession of, 316. 
Flour riots, 445. 
Flournev, General, 138,178. 
Foot. Saniuel A.. 368. 
Force Bill, 412. 
Forsyth, ,Iohn, 431. 
Fowltown, 297. 
Francis, 306. 

Frederick IL Quoted, 147. 
French imbroglio, 433. 
Fromentin, Judge, 318, 324, 326. 
Fullerat, Mr., 32i, 325. 



Gadsben, Fort, 301. 

Gadsden, Lieutenant 301, 305, 309. 

Gaines, General E. P. Allusion to, 178. In 

Seminole war, 296, 297, 299, 303,313. 
Galbruith, Ca[itain. Jackson's quarrel with, 34 
Gallatin. Albert, 229. 
G«tes, General Horatio. Defeated by Corn- 

waliis, 21. 
Gedue}', Lieutenant, 442. 
Gibbs, General Samuel, 229, 240, 256, 261. 
Gilison, Colonel, 301, 303. 
Giles, William B., 65. 
Globe, The, 3S3, 388. 
Gooch, Mr.. 3S2. 
Goodrich, S. G., 337. ' 
Gordon, Captain, 164. 
Greeley, Horace, 397. 

Greene, General. Defeated by Lord Eawdon, 31. 
Green, General Duff, 370,383,395. 
Greenup, Christopher, 65. 
Grundy, FelLx, 290. 



Hall, Judse Domiuick A., 285, 287, 288, 289. 

Hallen, Captain. 222. 

Hallcr, Sailing- Master, 233. 

Haml.ly. William, 305, 310. 

Hamilton, Alexander. Allusion to, 64, 409. 

Hamilton, Captain, 164. 

Hammond, Captain, 140. 

Hammonds, Lieutenant-Colonel, 195. 

Hanging Eoek. Battle of, 20. 



Hannah, 344, 468. 

Hardeman, Thomas, 62. 

Hardy, Captain. 240. 

Harrfs, John, 279. 

Harrison, Colonel, 72. 

Harrison, General W. H., 131, 177, 178. 

Harrison, William, 89. 

Hatchv, 297. 

Hawkins, Colonel, 174, ISO. 

Hayne, Colonel A. P. In defense of New 
Orleans, 201, 216. In Seuiinole war, 300, 302. 

H.ayne, Robert Y., 368, 404, 410. 

Hays, Stokelj-. In Benton aifray, 122. 

Henderson and Searev, 44. 

Henly, Captain, 215, 231, 233. 

Henry, Capt.ain, 203. 

Henry, Patrick, 409. 

Hermes, The, 185, 189. 

Hermitage, The, 77, 78, 96. 

Higgins, Colonel. 161. 

Hillabees, The. Sue for peace, 145, 159. 

Hill, Captain. Quoted, 242. 

Hill, Isaac, 361, 305, 375. 

Himollemico, 300. 

Hinds, Colonel. In defense of Kew Orleans, 213, 
216, 266, 275. 

TLibkirk's Hill. Battle of, 31. 

llallander, Mr., 2S5. M 

Horseshoe Bend. 166. 

Houston, Sam., 165, 169. 

Hughes, Mr., 229. 

Hall, Colonel William, 109. 

Humbert, General, 269, 275. 

Humiihrey, Captain, 236, 243, 263. 

Humphries, Dr. Jackson attends his school, 
1.5. 

Hunter's Hill, 77, 78, 79. 

Hutchings, John, 77, 81. 

Hutchinson sisters. Emigrate, 9. Their char- 
acter and station, 10. 

Huygens, Mrs. 373. 



Impartial Review, The, 87, 92, 94. 
Ingersoll, C. J. Quoted, 106. 
Inauguration of Jackson. 348. 
Ingham. Samuel D., 350, 377, 385. 
Iniierarit.v, Mr., 319, 325. 
Internal improvements, 371. 
Irving, Washington, 264. 



Jackson Andrew, Juu. Adopted by Jackson, 
104. 

Jackson, Andrew, Sen. Emigrates, 9. Poor, 10. 
Death and burial, 11. 

Jackson, Craven, 164. 

Jackson, Hugh. Born in Ireland, 9. Death, 18. 

Jackson, General Andrew. Union County, N. 
C, named in h<morof him, 11. Born, 12. At- 
tends old field school, "14. His character as 
a school-boy, 16. His regard for his mother, 
18. At battle of Hanging Rock, 20. Ride on 
the grass pony, 21. Lives with Mrs. Wilson, 
22. Hates the British, 22. Defends house of 
Captain Sands, 2.\ In afiair at the Wax- 
haws, 27. Taken prisoner, 2S. Ltefuses to 
clean officer's boots, 28. Confined at Camden, 
29. Saves Thompson by a stratagem, 29. 
Sees a battle through knot-hole, 31. Released, 
32. Sickness, 32. Vi-sits Charleston, 35. Wins 
at dice, 36. Teaches school, 36. Studies law, 
38. His character as a student, 40. Race with 



476 



Montgomery, 41. Licensed, 42. Described at 
twenty, 42. Attends store, 44. A constable, 
44. Removes to Tennessee, 4.). Saves the 
party, 46. Kcaches Nashville, 48. Boards 
with Mrs. Donelson, 52. Early practice, 53. 
Marriage, 57. Prosi)ers, 58. Conquers a 
bully, 69. Duel with Avery, 60. Saves 
Joncsboro' from fire, 61. In Tennessee conven- 
tion, G'2. Member of Congress, 63. Appoint- 
ed senator, 67. Itesigns, 68. Judse of Su- 
preme Court of Tennessee, 69. ■ Feud witli 
Sevier, 70. Resigns judgeship,- 74. Visits 
Captain Lyon, 74. Dealings with Allison, 76. 
Pays bis debts, 77, 78. Goes into business, 
78. Fond of horses, 79. Truxton, 80. His mode 
of dealing, SO. Duel with Dickinson, 88. En- 
tertains Burr, 97. Pursues and defends Burr, 
10'2. Saves Patten Anderson, 105. Conducts 
troops to Natchez, 109 Return home, 111. 
Saved from ruin by Benton, 115. Carroll's 
second, 117. Wounded in affray with the 
Bentons, 121. Takes the field against the 
Creeks, 132. Adopts Lincoyer, 141. Rescues 
friendly Creeks, 144. Quells mutiny, 149. 
Excursion into the Indian country, lo9. At 
Battle of Horseshoe Bend, 168. Spares 
W*athersford, 17.5. Receives commission in 

% regular army, 17S. His health after Creek 
war, 179. Defends Mobile, 182. Takes Pensa- 
cola, 193. Arrives at New Orleans, 199. Dines 
at Mrs. Livingston's, 199. Prepares to defend 
the city. 201. Receives news of approach of 
the British, 211. Attacks them, 218. Fortities 
his position, 226. Repels first attack, 238. 
Repels second attack, 243. Repels third at- 
tack, 253. Deceives General Lambert, 270. 
Celebrates his victory, 277. Orders execu- 
tion of six militia-men, 278. Ex])els French 
from New Orleans, 284. Arrests Judge Hall 
••and others, 285. Fined, 289. Visits Washing- 
ton, 292. Tranquilizes the Creeks, 293. Builds 
a church, 294. Ordered to Florida. 299. 
Marches to Fort Seott, 300. Invades Florida, 
301. Takes St. Marks, 304 Executes Indian 
chiefs, 306. Executes Arbuthnot and Am- 
brister, 313. Appointed governor of Florida, 

• 316. PutB Colonel Callava in the Calabiiose, 
317 to 330. Candidate for the presidency, 382. 
Meets Adams at White House, 337. Elected 
president, 843. At death of Mrs. Jackson, 
345. InauEcurated, .349. Appoints his cabinet, 
350. Defe^nds Mrs. Eaton, 351, 354 Removes 
office-holders, 3.56. Against Bank of IT. S., 
86'3. Removes Indians, 307. Rebukes nullifi- 
cation, 370. Vetoes road bill, 371. Adopts 
Van Bureu as his successor, 375. Quarrels 
with Calhoun, 878. Estaidishes the Globe, 383. 
Dis.solves cabinet, 386. Vetoes bank bill, 392. 
Re-elected, 890. I'uts down nullification, 406 
to 417. Assaulted by R.andolph, 418. Visits 
Fredericksburg, 418. Travels North, 419. 
Removes deposits. 425. Receives deputa- 
tion of merchants, 429. Advances Taney, 432. 
Compels payment of French inderanitv, 436. 
Fired at by a lunatic, 442. Issues Specie 
Circular, 444. In retirement, 447. Last quar- 
rel with Clay. 44S. Joins the churcli, 4."d. 
Alters his will, 4r>'>. IVomotes annexation 
of Texas, 45,5. Closing scenes, 457. Death, 
463. Remarks upon, 464. 

J.ackson, Mrs. Andrew, Jun., 450, 401. 

Jackson, Mrs. Elizabeth. A poor man's daugh- 
ter. 9. Goes to live with Crawford, 13. De- 



signs AntTrew for the ministry, 15. Earns his 
Schooling by spinnir.g tlax. 15. Nurses the 
wounded, 19 Allusion to, 21. Delivers her 
sons from Camden prison, 32. Visits Charles- 
ton, 83. Death, 33. Mourned by Andrew, 84. 
Allusion to, 42. 

Jackson. Mrs. llachel. Her voyage to Nashville, 
49. Married to Robards, 52. Her character, 
103. Adopts a nephew, 104. Receives Lin- 
coyer, 141. Goes to Florida, 816. At New 
Orleans in 182S, 340. Death, 345. 

Jackson, Robert. Born in Ireland, 9. Allusion 
to, 18. At battle of Hanging Rock, 20. De- 
fends house of Captain Sauds^ 25. In affair at 
Waxhaw, 27. Taken prisoner, 28. Confined 
at Camden, 29. Death, 31. 

Jackson, Samuel. Emigrates, 9. 

Jay, John, 66! 

Jefferson, Thomas. His vote for president in 
1797, 66. Appoints governor of Louisiana, 74. 
Denounced by Jackson, 102. Attends Jack 
son banquet at Lynchburg, 291. His appoint- 
ment and removal policy, 355. His birthday 
celebrated. 309. His cheese, 416. 

Johnson, Colonel R. M., 388. 

Johnson. Sailing-I^IaBter, 249. 

Jonesboro', Teun., 46, 60. 

Jones, Lieutenant Thomas Ap Catesby, 202, 207. 

Jugeant, Captain, 214, 217. 



Keane, General, 205, 210, 215, 225, 228, 240, 256, 

261, 282. 
Kendall, Amos. Allusion to, 83. Against 

Bank of U. S., 862, 305, 366. Allusion to, 374. 

Sends for Blair, 382, 383. 
Kennedy, Major, 130, 195. 
Kent, Chancellor, 866. 
Kerr, Dr. J. C, 276. 
Kerr, Miss, 277. 
Kerr, Victor, 276. 
King, Rufus, 63, 430. • 
Kins, Major, 263. 
Kins, AVilliam G., 429. 
King's Mountain. Battle of; 24. 
Knoxvilie, Tc-!inessee, 02. 
Krudener, Baron, 874. 



L.^DffLTAT, General, 340. 

Lacoste, Captain, 265. 

Lafitte, Jean, 223. 

Lama. Mr., 325. 

Lambert, General John, 257, 264, 263, 269, 272, 
274. 

Latour, Major, 200, 227, 247, 276. 

Lawrence, Major. Defends Fort Morgan, 185, 
197. 

Lavac, Lieutenant, 262. 

Laval, Captain, ISO, 190, 195, 196. 

Lee, Henry, -397. 

Lewis, Joel, 62. 

Lewis, Major William B. Allusion to, 38. Ac- 
companies Jackson to Natchez, 109. In serv- 
ice against the Creeks, 137, 152. Jackson to, 
on Clav, 338. On whitewasliing committee, 
842. At death of Mrs. Jackson, 346. Accom- 
panies Jackson to Wasbinston. 34'^. Lives in 
White House, 353, 364. 370, 374. Promotes 
ll;e Olobv, Ssi. Quoted, 408. At deathbed 
of Jackson. 400, 462. 

Lewis, Mr., 279. 

Lincoyer. Adopted by Jackson, 141. 



477 



Livingston, Ed\r.ard. In Congress with Jack- 
son, (i5, (jy. Jn defense of New Orleans, 197, 
199, '213, 217. 2S2. Oifored office, 350. Ap- 
pointed secretary of state, 3S6. Quoted, 391. 
Kmliassador to France, 4rr, 436. 

Livingston, Mrs., 199, 200. 

Locke, Maltliew, 65. 

Lockyer, Captain, 185, 207. 

Lossinic, Beiijainin J. Quoted, 25. 

Louaillier, Mr., 2S5, 2S6. 

Louisiana Courier, 2S4. 

Louisiana Gazette, 233. 

Louisiana, The, 203, 234. 

Louis Philippe, i^ii. 

Lowry, Colonel, 195. 

Lvman, William, 65. 

Lynch burgh, \a., 291. 

Lyon, Captain, "4, 75. • 



MACr..4,T, SAMirEi., 65. 

McCay, Spruce. Jackson studies law under him, 
38. His law office, 39. 

McClelland, Lieutenant, 219, 220. 

McDouL'al. Captain. 260, 261. 

McDulKe. Mr., 366. 

McGary, Hugh, 53. 

McOavock, Mr., 164. 

Mcintosh, General. 304, 307,-309. 

McKeever, Captain, 803, 806. 

McKeiney, George, 11. Jackson born at his 
house, 12. Ruins of his house described, 12. 

McKenuey, Colonel. Quoted. 855. 

McLauc, Louis, 8S9, 413, 417, 420, 431. 

McMahon, Marslial. Quoted, 147. 

McNairy, Judge John. Goes to Tennessee, 45. 
Surprised by the Indians, 47. In convention, 
62, 63. 

McNairy, Mr. Studies law with Jackson, 39. 

McNairy, Nathaniel. Fights Coffee, 85. 

McQueen, Peter. 307. 

McKea, Colonel, 213. 

Macon. Nathaniel, 65. 

Madison, Jamos. iJispleased with Jackson, 102, 
106. Accepts services of Jackson, 108. Ap- 
points Cass, 388. 

Malcolm, Admiral, 240, 283. 

Mansker, Gasper, .53. 

Marcv, Governor, 482. 

Marignv, Mrs.. 340. 

Marshall, Thomas F., 461. 

Martinsville, N. C. Jackson lives there. 44. 

Mason, Jeremiah, 861. 

Massacre. At Fort Mims. 124. Of Lieutenant 
Scott, 298. 

Maurequez, Governor, 193. 

Mav, Dr. Quoted. 134. 

Maysville Veto, 371. 

Messages. How written, 863. 
■ Milburn, Mr. Quoted, 83. 

Miller, David, SS, 89. 

Miller, John, 820. 

Mims, Fort, 1^4. 

Minis, Samuel, 124. 

Mitchell, M.ajor, 222, 223. 

Mitchell, General, 807. 

Mobile. Defence of, 131. 

Monroe. County seat of Union county, N. C, 11. 

Monroe, James. Jackson for, in 1812, 106. 
Toasted by Jacksim in 1SI,5, 291. Appoints 
Jackson guveunor of Florida, 316. Advises 
Wirt, 349. His appoiutaaent and removal 
policy, 356. Appoints Biddle, 860. 



Montgomery, Hugh. His race with .Tackson, 41. 
Montgomery, Major L. P., 169. 
Moore, Gabriel. 389. 
Morel, P. L., 2i>5. 
Morgan, Colonel. 1C8. 
Moriran, Fort. Defense of, 185. 
Morgan, Genend, 251, 254, 267, 271. 
Morganton, N. C, 45. 
Motte, Mrs. Bura^ her house, 23. • 
Monntz, Lieutenant, 324. 
Muhleuburgh, Major, 299. 
Mullens, Colonel, 257, 259. 
Mutiny. In Creek war, 147. At Fort Jackson, 
192, 27S. 



Napoleon, 147, 433, 4.34. 

Nasliville. Founded, 48. Early trade, 76. 

Nasihville Whig. Quoted, 114. 

National Intelligencer. Quoted, 178, 328. 

Nesril Bay. 205. 

Nc-,^a-o fort, yill. 

Newman, Dr. Anthony. Entertains British 

officers, 25. 
New Orleans.* Defense of, 197. 
New Yorcan, 1.59. 
Nichols, Colonel. In Florida, 182, 185, 186, 189, 

197, 292, 313. 
Noah, M. M., 362. 

Noite, Mr. Quoted, 206, 220, 251, 252, 285, 290. 
Norris, 'ieutenant, 233, 236. 



Nullification, 398. 



Oakfcskie, 159. 

Office-holders. Removal of, 356. 

Ogden. Captain Peter V., 287. 

O. K. Probable origin of, 53. 

Old Field School. Described, 14. 

Old Hickory. Origin of the name, 118, 114. 

O'Neal, Margaret, 351. 

O'Neal, Mrs., 351, 374. 

O'Neal, William. 351. 

Overton, General Thomas. Jackson's second, 

88. Welcomes Bun-, 99. 
Overton, Judge, 70, 3i6. 



Pakenham, General Sir Edward. Arrives be- 
fore New Orleans, 229. His first measures, 
230, 281. Destroys the Carolina, 233. Re- 
connoiters, 237. Attacks Jackscm's lines, 242. 
Wounded, 260. Death, 261. 

Parker, Adjutant-General, U6. 

P.arsons, Enoch, quoted, 132. 

Patterson, Commodore. In defense of New Or- 
leans. 202, 203, 212 215, 217, 232, 249, 251, 253, 
26s, 271. 

Patterson, Lieutenant, 140, 

Peace of 1S15, 283, 288. 

Peddie, Lieutenant, 207. 

Pendleton Messenger, 401. 

Pensacola, 182, 191. 315. 

Perkins, Colonel, 1&3. 

Perkins, Constantiue. 164. 

Percy, Captain, 185, 1S8. 189. 

Peny, Commodore, 128. 

Phaups, Lieutenant, 245. 

Pickett, A. J. Quoted. 175. 

Piere, >Iajor. 193, 191, -213. 

Pinckney. Ccfieral. l.~-4, 167, 166, 171, 172. 

Piucknej-, Thomas. M. 

Pipkins, Captain, HU. 



478 



INDEX 



Planchfe, Major. In defense of New Orleans, 2u;5, 
213, 216, 217, 219, 220, 265. Receives Jackson 
at New Oleans, 340. 

Piatt, Colonel, 219, 220. 

Pleasant Grove Camp Ground. Site of farm of 
Andrew Jackson, Sen., 11. 

Plowboy, 84. 

Polk, Colonel William, 58. 

Polk, James K.. 3S1, 455. 

Pontchartrain, Lake, 202. 

Porter, John. Quoted, 36. 

Porter, Mr., 36T. 

Proctor, General, 131. 

Pryor, Captain, 84. 



Queen's College. Attended by Jackson, 15. 



Ramsey, Mr. Quoted, 45, 46, 70. 

Randolph, Dr. John, 357, 375. 

Randolph, John, 336. 

Randolph, Lieutenant, 418. 

Rawdon, Lord. Attacks the Waxhaws, 19. De- 
feats Genei-al Greene, 31. 

Red River, Ky., 86, SS, 89. 

Reid, Captain, 213. 

Removal of the deposits, 420. 

Rennie, Colonel, 256, 263. 

Reynolds, Mr., 401. • 

Rives, Mr., 434. 

Roane, Governor. Gives major-generalship to 
Jackson, 72. 

Robards, Lewis. Marries Rachel Donelson, 52. 
Divorces her, 57. 

Roberts, General, 153. 

Robertson, Captain James. Founds Nashville, 
49, 50, 52. In convention, 62. Taught to read 
by his wife, 62. Allusion to, 98. "Welcomes 
Burr, 99. 

Rodgers, J. B. Quoted, 306, 808. 

Roderiguez Canal, 214, 226. 

Ross, Colonel, 213. 

Rotation in office, 356, 459. 

Rowan House. Described, 39. 

Rush, Richard, 341. 

Russell, Captain, 1C3. 

Russell, Colonel, 278, 279. 

Rutherford county, N. C. Hanging tories in 
the Revolution, 24. 

Rutledge, Major, 346. 



St. Marks, Fort, 304. 

St. Michael, Fort, 193. 

Sage, Dr. John. Quoted, 106. 

Salisbury, N. C. Jackson studies law there, 38, 

42. 
Sands, Captain. His house defended, 26. 
Scott, General Winfleld, 40G. 
Scott, Lieutenant R. W., 298,306. 
Scott, Thomas, 215. 
Searcy, Thomas. Keeps store at Martinsville, 

44. Removes to Tennessee, 45. Quoted, 46. 

In service against the Creeks, 153. 
Seminole War, 295. 
Sergeant, Mr., 396. 
Sevier, John. First governor of Tennessee, 16. 

His character, 70. Feud with Jackson, 73. 
Seward, W. H., 229, 4:32. 
8hepii:-d, Mr., 282. 
Six, MOitin-Men. Execution of, 279. 
imart, Mrs. Susan. Her anecdotes of Jackson, 21 



Smiley, Major, 262. 

Smith, General Daniel. Anecdote of, 60. Sue 

ceeds Jacksmi in the senate, 68. 
Sousa, Domin-o, 319, 320, 221, 322, 826. 
South, The. Described, 37. 
Specie Circular, 444. 
Spencer, Captain, 207. 208. 
Spotts, Lieutenant, 213, 258. 
Stansbury, Mr., 357. 
State I>eposit Act, 444. 
Stephenson, Andrew, 863. 
Stokes, Colonel John. Jackson studies law with 

him, 42. 
Stokes, Mr., 315. 
Stono. Battle of, 18, 20. 
Story, Judge, 349, 432. 
Subaltern, The^ Quoted, 208, 230, 237, 242, 243, 

248, 272. * 
Sutfcrn, Mrs. Emigrates, 9. 
Sumpter, General. At battle of Hanging Rock,20. 
Suwannee, 30J, 308. 
Swann, ThomaS. Feud with Jackson, 85, 94, 

103. 
Swartwout, Samuel. Insults Wilkinson, 103. 



Talladega, 142, 144. 
Talleyrand, Prince, 390. 
Talluschatches. Battle of, 139. 
Taney, Roger B., 38. 388, 425, 431, 432. 
Tarleton, Colonel. Attacks the Waxhaws, 18, 19. 

Anecdote of, 25. 
Tecumseh, 69, 131. 
Ten Islands, 139. 
Tennessee. Its early prosperity, 5S. Enters 

the Union, 08. Early trade, 76. Climate, 108. 
Terror among office-holders. 354. 
Thomas, General, 204. 
Thompson, Lieutenant, 234, 236. 
Thompson, Mr. Saved by Jackson, 29. 
Thornton, Colonel W, 2lb, 252, 264, 267, 266. 
Timberlake, i'urser, 351. 
Todd, Mr., 229. 
Tohopeca. Battle of, 166. 
Toussard, M., 2S4. 
Trist, Nicholas P., 372, 448. 
Trnxton, 84. 
Twelve Mile Creek. Andi-cw Jackson, Sen., 

settles near it, 11. 
Twiggs, Colonel, 297. 
Tyklen, Major Sir John, 258, 261, 264. 



Upauley, 159. 

Union County, N. 0. Why so named, 11. 



Van BuREN, Mahtin. Allusion to, 88. Enter- 
tains Burr, 107. For Jackson in 1828, 339. 
Ap])ointed secretary of state, 350. Allusion 
to, 3G0. Takes up Mrs. Eaton, 372. Re^varded 
for the same by being adopteil as the successor 
of Jackson, 375, 377. Minister to England, 
387, 389. Rejected by senate, 389. Allusion 
to, 415. Travels with J.ickson, 419. Elected 
president, 445. Snubs Benton, 44G. Inau- 
gurated, 447. Jackson to 448. 

Vaughan, Mr., 373. 

Venable. .\braham, 65. 

Veri)l:iiick, (iulian C, 413. 

Verrell. Major, s-J. 

Veto. Of .Mavsville road bill, 371. Of bank 
bill, 891. 



479 



Viil.il, Kirbolns iLiria, 319, 328. 
Villere, General, 20T. 
Villcre. Major Gabriel, 211. 



Watket;. Alkxandek. Quoted, 208, 211, 22-3, 
2-18. ii:), litU, 27.5. 

TValkiip. (ifiicra! S. H. Quoted, 86. 

■Walton. Geor-e, 32(1, 326. 

Washington, George. His farewell speech to 
t'onsress, t>t. At inauguration of John Adams, 
60. His removal and appointment polie.y, 355. 

Waxhaw Church. Described, 11. Used as a 
hospital, 19. 

Waxliaw Graveyard. Described, 11. 

"Waxhaw Settlemeut. Described, 10, 14. In the 
revolution, 19. 'JO. 

"Wiathersford, "William. Attacks Fort Mims, 
126. His interview with Jackson, 173. Death, 
177. 

Webster, Daniel. Allusion to. 83. A teller at 
election of Adams, 357. Quoted, 348, 306. 
Debate with Hayne, 368. Quoted, 376, 377, 
8ji9. Against nullification, 415. Against re- 
moval of deposits, 42S. 



AVhite, Captain Slaunsel, 2S2. 

White, Hugh L. Petitions Congress for com- 
pensation, 66. Opposed to dueling, 8-3. In 
service again.*t the Creeks, 138, 143, 144. 
Refu.ses office, 357. Elected pre.sident of sen- 
ate, 407. 

White, Josei)h. Jackson lived with him, 34. 

Wilkinson. General James. Insulted by Swart- 
wout, 103. Dispute with Jackson, "llO, 112, 
113. Allusion to. 178.- 

Wilkinson, Major, '262. 

Williams, Colonel, I j^, 169. 

Williamson, Ctolonel, 195. 

Wilson, Mrs. Young Jackson at her house, 22. 

Wilson, Eev. Dr. His recollections of young 
Jackson, 22. 

Winchester, Gencr.al, 197, 278. 

Wirt, William, 349. 

Woodbine, Captain, 185, 189, 197, 292, 313. 

Woodbury, Levi, 38, 365, 386, 419, 431, 442. 

Wright, Major C, 302. 

Wright, Silas, 423. 



Yor, Dominique, 236. 



(May 12 1863' 



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